Trouble at Fairy High
by Darkiri
Summary: "Erza is the student president of Fairy High. Jellal is a new student who is there with a mission ordered by his father. How are those two going through their High School year without tearing it apart?" This is an JERZA high school AU, enjoy reading it!
1. Erza Scarlet

Erza is the student president, she is known by her fiery attitude. Jellal is a new student searching for a certain girl his father ordered to.

Who is this girl? And what is his father planning to do?

Are you curious enough?

**Hello dear Jerza fans, today I bring you a Jerza High School AU. Team Natsu will also be present and crime sorciere Ultear and Meredy. :D (Wendy won't be included as I thought for her age wouldn't be really logical, even though I will use her later if I have the opportunity of course.)**

**This story is a drama/romance/mystery story with dark and some of violence subjects, this is why I ranked it like this, only for language and violence tho. (The dark violence stuff only gets present later on the fic, it won't be that dark I promise, probably more fighting xD)**

Btw I don't see enough Jerza fanfics so I decided to write some too, this is my first one but I hope I do well xD I hope you enjoy the story and don't worry, I will surely finish it! Don't hesitate to leave a review with your thoughts!

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and its characters belongs to Hiro Mashima! If it belonged to me Jerza would kiss at the end as well as the other couples tbh... hahaha they are canon inside my head ;D**

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**Chapter 1:** **Erza Scarlet**

**...**

Erza is a 17 years old High School student girl with long scarlet hair and brown eyes. She is the student council president of one of the most interesting school of Fiore, the 'Fairy Tail High School'.

The Fairy High is an High school with dormitories (Fairy Hills) included for those who came aboard or those who lived far away from the institution. Fairy hills dormitories consisted of one to two rooms and one salon, with kitchen included.

This school was interesting not only because it was one of the most famous but also because of their students behavior, being known through all over the continent.

Every year Fairy High was known to cause some kind of problem, and the protagonists beyond it all been always around 4 young people… Natsu, Gray, Lucy and Erza, all from the same class… 2-A class.

Natsu Dragneel was a muscular young man with a slightly tan skin tone, black eyes and spiky pink-colored hair. He knew Erza from last year, along with Gray Fullbuster, a young also muscular man with black spiky hair and black eyes.

Natsu and Gray were always caught in fights which somehow made Erza involved in them at some point and thus lead Lucy to also be part of the predicament.

...

It was the first day of school, one more stressing but interesting year. Erza was getting ready in her room, putting on her school uniform, which consisted of a dark blue skirt and a white shirt. She went straight to the kitchen when finished only to find Lucy taking breakfast, she was already on her uniform.

Lucy glanced over the red-haired girl and waved, smiling.

"Good morning, Erza!" She greeted, happily.

Lucy was Erza's best friend, or so she claims. Lucy Heartfilia, a young blond haired girl with brown eyes. Her hair is usually tied in a ponytail to the right side of her head. She is from a well-known and wealthy family but she never really cares about showing it off to the world. She is kind and does whatever it takes for her friends.

Lucy and Erza share a room on Fairy High dormitories. After Lucy's mother died 3 years ago, things got a little complicated with her father and so she decided to stay at Fairy High with her best friend. Those dormitories were free for students, but you would have to pay for your own supplies.

Erza lived alone before moving to Fairy High, it was situated far away and it was easier to move to Fairy Hills while at school.

The red haired girl lost her mother when she was 6 and she was left with nothing but an old caring man by her side, he was her parents' old friend and was like a grandfather to her, but must to her already bad luck, the old man died when she was 14. Her father was nowhere to be found after her mother's death, but Lucy realized Erza never liked her father anyway, even though she never knew the reason beyond it.

Lucy knew Erza had a really rough past and was satisfied to be her friend. Even though no one else seemed to understand her, she was there for her, ever since they met at a very young age… after Erza's mother' death.

Makarov, the old man that took care of Erza, knew Lucy's parents very well, and tend to visit them every other day… He always came with little Erza beside him, he knew Heartfilia's also had a daughter of the same age, and thought Erza could make a friend, so she could start smiling and be at least a little happier…

At first, Erza didn't want to be friends with the little timid blond haired girl, she wanted to be left alone and was afraid to obtain any more precious people on her life, to later lose them forever, again. But some months later they grew closer and Erza started to accept Lucy after realizing the little girl was also by herself, with no friends, and she was so kind every time Erza visited her home... She ended up by befriend her and they never got apart since then.

"Erza!" she shouted suddenly, getting Erza back to earth. "What are you doing, taking all the time in the world? We're gonna be late!"

Lucy saw Erza's nervous face for a moment before she got pushed by her hand and out of the dorm in a flash.

"Wait, what about your breakfast?" She asked, half giggling to her stupid friend, who was always in a rush.

"I can eat something at school, also, I still have things to discuss with the principal about the student council so let's just hurry!" Erza explained, while running.

Once they got inside the famous school, they slowed down the pace and Lucy got a glimpse of some of the students freezing on their actions and being nervous with both girls' presence. One of them was tucking his shirt inside his pants as fast as he could while another one was hiding behind his girl friend hoping he won't die for unknown reasons.

Lucy knew why they were behaving like this and sighed, watching all them staring and being scared of none other than Erza Scarlet, her best friend!

Erza is known for being the scariest student at Fairy High, she tends to always be alone or stuck at the student's council room... if not for when two stupid people bother her, of course. In her mind she had responsibilities being the student president and it was never easy with students like Natsu or Gray.

Lucy reminded how Erza was always calm and mature but also innocent. That, sometimes, made her to behave as stupid as the other two, which always directed them to even bigger problems or situations.

"OIII Lucy, Erza!"

Lucy snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Natsu calling them, they were at the corridors and he was running towards the girls along with Gray.

She could only imagine what would happen next.

Erza quickly punched Natsu and Gray and scolded them both afterwards, leaving the two boys with a red mark on their face, both on the ground.

_Here we go again._ Lucy thought, amused.

"Natsu, I already told you not to run on the corridors…" She started, only then turning to Gray and add "And where is your shirt?" She face-palmed trying to calm herself, she couldn't believe how these two were persistent at breaking the rules.

"Aye…" Lucy heard Natsu's weak answer and sighed.

Natsu was always so impulsive he would forget how Erza was strict with school rules, as for Gray… why he was always half naked, it was a mystery even to Lucy, who was standing there watching students passing by as soundless as they could after realizing the situation, not wanting to get involved.

_Well, I guess this will be a very normal first day._ She thought, smiling at the three of them.

...

The first bell rang and Erza was still nowhere to be found, she headed to see the director earlier so Lucy assumed she was still with him.

She glanced at Natsu being loud as ever and sighed. Class was really a mess without Erza.

She saw their homeroom teacher finally arriving and everyone sat down silently, Natsu sat next to her and Gray was just behind Natsu and next to Erza. Erza's seat was behind Lucy but it was still empty since the red haired girl wasn't present. Their homeroom teacher briefly declared the student council president, Erza Scarlet, was with the director so she would join them later. With that being said, he then started calling each student name.

...

Erza left the director's office and started pacing towards her classroom.

She was happy now that the student council matters were discussed and she could enjoy the rest of her first day.

Or that was what she wished for…

"I told you to bring me apple juice... Why did you take strawberry flavor instead? I hate strawberry." Someone was angry.

She turned in the direction of the voices and spotted three young boys at the corridor at her left. One of them was cowering in fear from the other two, he seemed younger than them… The one who spoke earlier grabbed the youngest by his shirt, showing his superiority.

"Now go and buy me another one while I am being nice" He menaced.

Erza's fists clenched… _so good to be a calm first day._

She slowly walked towards the three and grabbed the foolish boy's wrist which was still on hold of the youngest's guy' shirt.

"Why don't you let go of his shirt now?" She demanded, as calm as she could.

"And who are you?" The man asked, furiously.

The other man stared at Erza and started to sweat dropped. "Jose… she is…"

However before the guy could finish his sentence, Erza took him off balance and throw him over her shoulder causing him to land on his back and gasp with the impact.

Erza ignored the sound as she calmly patted the youngest guy saying "Everything's fine now, you can go to class, leave the rest to me.".

The boy just nodded shyly, half in shock with what he just witnessed and left as fast as he could.

Jose, the guy who was cursing on the ground, tried to get up ignoring his friend, that was somehow pleading him to do nothing more.

"What did you do? How dare you?" He shouted angrily in disbelief.

Erza grabbed him by his shirt now that the youngest guy was gone and bitterly muttered. "If you ever hurt any student again, I won't let you go clean."

Jose sweat dropped at her cold, dark stare, he felt like he was about to pee in his pants. This woman was scary, her eyes were fiery and intimidating.

Then he suddenly remembered his friend briefly talking about a red haired student council president monster… Now he could understand the situation he was in. This was none other than the student council president… Erza Scarlet!

He humbly apologized kneeling down in fear with his friend joining him without hesitation and they walked as faster as they could afterwards, far from a scarlet haired pissed girl.

He wasn't stupid… he wanted to live peacefully through this year.

Erza started walking towards her classroom again, only this time she was savouring a strawberry juice.

"Hmm, strawberry is always the best, why would you pick apple instead? You fool!" she happily wondered.

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**AN: This was the end of chapter one. I invite you to read it at least more 2 or 3 chapters to see if you like it as this is def more of an introduction chapter, the main story will unfold slowly but surely.**

I have to say this will be a Jerza centric fanfic, either being Erza centric like this chapter, or Jellal centric like next one.

I hope you enjoy the story and don't hesitate to leave a review down below. Thank you for reading!

SN: English is not my first language so I apologise if I make any grammar errors.


	2. Jellal Fernandes

**Here is chapter two with our cute Blue haired character introduction :3**

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima!**

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**Chapter 2: Jellal Fernandes**

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Jellal was a tall blue haired boy with a red tattoo under and above his right eye, he was wearing his new school uniform that consisted of a white shirt which was untucked from his dark blue pants. His dark blue tie was missing, or better said, forgotten at his shared room at Fairy Hills.

The blue haired boy didn't really cared about this school or its uniform, and he knew teachers or even the principal wouldn't really bother him with the topic since his father was a well known and feared business man.

He transferred into this new High School this year by his father's choice, though, he still didn't know exactly every detail about it.

While walking, he absently recalled about a few days ago.

"_But why do I have to transfer to another school now?" Jellal asked, suspiciously._

"_Just listen carefully!" His father ordered. "I need you to attend this school and report to me about everything you see as suspicious, we need to find a certain girl."_

"_What do you mean?" Jellal asked again, he was starting to get tired of all this mystery._

"_It's a girl at the same High School year as yours. She has black hair and that is all I actually know. The rest is unknown to me and that is why I need you to be there. I will explain to you about what to do later." His father explained, with a dark expression._

He was annoyingly walking around his new school, not bothering to run for his first class, which he was sure already began by now. He was late because of his soon transferring, his father suddenly announced his sudden decision three days ago. Seems like he was searching for something else involving that girl… not that he cared.

He hated his father but reluctantly had to do as he pleased much to his disagreement. But how was he supposed to search for a girl without any information. He knew she had to be in Grade 11 if she was in the same year as he, even though she could be in a different class, which will be hard on him if so.

He knew the girl had black hair... but there were tons of those in any school, since he arrived one hour ago he already spotted dozen of black haired girls around his age…

He sighed in defeat. "Why black? If it was at least another color… like… red?" He paused, spotting a red haired someone scolding two guys on the corridor, he was watching them through the window, since he was on the school yards, he couldn't really see that much but it was his first time watching a red haired girl, as he assumed, throwing a punk looking guy on the ground and acting like nothing happened.

He blinked and watched how they knelt down on the ground like they were apologizing. And when the guys left the red haired girl went off her way tasting some juice and smiling happily.

_"What the…"_ he thought, he wouldn't be surprised with anything anymore after that unbelievable scene.

Her Scarlet hair balancing back and forth while she walked away, he thought he never saw scarlet hair like that before, even though it seemed so similar in his mind, it reminded him of something distant, like a memory that was lost. it was amazingly pretty. Only if she would be the girl his father was looking for, it would be all much easier, he wouldn't ever lose sight of that hair.

Even though he couldn't stop thinking it was actually better if she wasn't _the_ girl…

That girl seemed… difficult and problematic… Not that he was scared of her, not at all… But he didn't have the energy to deal with those kinds of people.

He saw her off and couldn't stop wondering how interesting this school already was. A while ago he saw how Gray was fighting someone for unknown reasons, he noticed the boy spotted some pink haired guy fighting against two and decided to join in, taking off his shirt in the process.

He knew Gray Fullbuster because it was his roommate. He wasn't really loud or annoying so he was okay with it… _I mean, it could be worst._ He wondered... thinking about the pink haired guy he saw earlier, screaming non sense through the whole 'fight'.

...

Jellal finally reached his classroom and knocked on the door, he was late and even though he didn't care he had no intention of being impolite in his first day, he didn't want to get any attention on him. He was in Class B while Gray was in Class A, so he didn't know anyone inside this room as for now.

He heard his teacher's voice and opened the door. The student's faces were all on him as he presented himself and seated next to a blond haired guy, his hair was slicked back with spiky strands pointed backwards, even though some were down on his forehead and he had a weird lightning-bolt scar on his face. Well, at least he wasn't the only one with weird marks on his face, he thought.

"Ultear, can you please show Fernandes around after this class, and explain to him the fonctionnement of this institution?" He heard his teacher politely asking to a black haired girl that sat in front of him.

"Of course Ma'am." The girl replied, she glared back and gave a playful smile to Jellal.

"Uh… yeah.. Thank you." He said, attentively looking at her hair.

Even though Jellal knew all about the school and its function, he somehow thought that this could be the start of his "investigation", this girl had black hair and her attitude was suspicious enough... Something about it and her eyes told him so, and he was rarely mistaken, so he was letting him getting close to her, for the time being. He thought he wouldn't really care about his father's case, but if he could finish this fast maybe he would leave him alone for awhile.

...

After the bell rang, they left the classroom and Ultear was showing Jellal around the school as said before. A pink haired girl was following behind commenting on this and that, as Ultear tried to explain and show him every important detail of the building.

"So, uh… who are you?" Jellal asked to the pink haired girl after some more of her comments.

"Oh, OH!" She started happily. "I thought you wouldn't ask, my name is Meredy! I am Ultear's best friend" She declared, hugging Ultear which reluctantly patted her head, embarrassed.

"Oh…" He said tired, he could only regret his decision of getting closer to that girl, he seemed to look into his tiring future in this school and sighed. But nonetheless continued with the company of these two girls showing him around and mumbling nonsense in the process, it was too late for him to go back now.

He could only blame his father and his stupid underground jobs. He had a life Jellal wouldn't even want to imagine, but he knew some of its darkness, he knew he ruled a private prison which he himself was held when he was a little kid, by his own father, apparently to make him see what he was capable of and to obey him, or so he was told at that time, not that he could remember a lot. After that happened, he wouldn't dare to step in his father's 'business', not wanting no know anything else.

But he didn't want to think about that, he just kept wondering why and what did his father want from this school or that unknown girl. It couldn't be anywhere to good.

This would be a stressing year, he thought.

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**And this is the end of chapter two, this was shorter than chapter one but to be honest… things will get interesting next chapter this is why I wanted to end it here, and I wanted to make a brief introduction to Jellal! ****See you guys next chapter.**

**SN: **

**1\. I know Fairy hills is originally only female dormitory but in this story is for both female and male :)**

**2\. Ultear's hair is originally dark purple hair but in this story it will be simply black as it seems black to me in the anime, and for the purpose of the plot of this story of course, so I decided to just write it down as black. Hope you don't mind.**


	3. The Letter

Chapter 3 is now out and a lot of things will happen here so get ready hahaha *evil laugh*

**Disclaimer: Fairy tail and its characters all belong to Hiro Mashima, go support the official release!**

**(And watch the final season if you didn't yet)**

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**Chapter 3: The letter**

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Two weeks had gone by since their first day of school and Erza was already drawn out of energy, she was so busy with her council affairs and she thought it was even more tiring than last year, somehow… and it was only the first two weeks! She pretty much didn't see Gray or Natsu at all for these last 10 days and was worried they would be doing a mess without her knowing it, and that was the reason she asked Lucy to look out for them for the time being, she knew the blond girl couldn't possibly stop those two imbeciles, although at least she would tell her if they did something, so she would punish them… hard.

Erza was on her way to her locker when she heard Lucy shouting her name from behind. Her best friend approached the red haired girl panting as she halted in front of her.

"Geeez why do you always have to be on a rush?" She complained to her Scarlet haired friend. "I was looking for you this morning, you received another letter, here!" she said handing her the envelope.

Erza glared at it and took it hesitantly… "Thanks." She murmured, and walked away quietly.

_Why do you always have that kind of expression when you get a letter from him?_ The blond haired girl pondered with a sad smile on her face… She knew Erza always behaved suspiciously quiet when her father sent her a letter.

It all started after Makarov died. Some months later she suddenly started receiving letters from her father, the first letter she got from him was the first and only one she ever opened, after she read the first words which were "My daughter, It's me…" she immediately frowned, crumpled the poor paper and threw it away, as if it had some kind of poison. Lucy sadly collected it from the ground and put it inside an empty box. She somehow convinced Erza to do the same to the rest of the letters she was getting every two times in a year.

But she never read them… and Lucy thought she would never do it anyway, but at least she wasn't throwing them away anymore.

She sighed in defeat and left to join Natsu and Gray, again, hoping they wouldn't be in trouble.

…

Erza immediately shoved the damn paper inside her pocket and opened her locker, she grabbed her Math book and closed it with more strength than necessary, startling passing students.

She nervously walked towards the student council office and didn't notice how the letter fell from her pocket to the ground.

She didn't get why _he_ was still sending her letters, but if he thought he could make her worry about it, he was completely mistaken, she though.

**…**

"Oi, where's Ultear?" asked the blue haired young man to Meredy, who was trailing behind him on the school corridors.

"She said she would go grab something on her locker and then go to the student council office." She replied absently, while licking a Popsicle.

"Student council office? Why would she go there?" He asked, confused.

"Oh, right, you didn't know but Ultear is one of the student council members, so she sometimes go there to help the president." She replied, half smiling, she couldn't understand how Ultear had the patient and time to do those kind of things. "I think they are having a studying section or something..." she added.

_Studying uh? _thought Jellal as an idea popped out of his head.

"Ah, Jellal… That reminds me, I have to go to the library, one of my friends is waiting for me. See ya later." She said suddenly and walked away, she seemed to be really in a hurry, maybe she also had to study. Meredy was a year younger than Jellal or Ultear, she was in a different grade so he couldn't possibly know her class schedules.

Jellal sighed at her sudden action, but took this opportunity to go visit Ultear on the so important student council office, he would be asking her to help him with Sciences, only to get closer to her and see if she would give some information about the girls in this school, or herself.

**…**

Ultear was closing her locker after grabbing her Math book, they would be holding a studying hour section at the student council office during their lunch time. She needed to get higher on her grades this year, so she took this opportunity and accepted being part of the student council. She would not only study with the best but obtain some positive points among the teachers for being part of it, it was perfect.

She started walking towards the student council direction when she spotted a letter on the ground.

She grabbed it at once and looked at it with a grim expression… _Who the hell lost a letter like this?_ But she couldn't pick any name on it, it only had a black seal and it was firmly closed, she didn't want to open it but she also didn't want to get trouble asking people for it.

Well, Ultear wasn't as kind as to waste her time anyway, so she just glanced over searching for a trash can and angrily threw it inside before pacing towards the student council office once again… That letter somehow pissed her off, even though she didn't exactly know why.

...

Jellal stood there watching how a somehow angry Ultear threw an unknown letter to the poor trash can nearby… He would never understand the students from this school.

Before he got to call her, he decided that it was better for him to let her go and inspect the insides of that suspicious letter first. He was curious enough to let it go, maybe he could use some information on that letter to get closer to the girl.

As soon as he saw no one was looking, he took the letter from the trash can that luckily it wasn't deep inside. He suspiciously glared at the letter and frowned… It was still closed.

"Well… it was on the trash can so even if I open it, it's okay right?" He whispered to himself to get assured of it and slowly opened the letter, noticing the black seal on its back.

"My daughter…" He started reading… So this was from Ultear's parents? Why didn't she read it…? He wondered, frowning. Something wasn't right. "It's me again, your hateful father. I write to you again knowing you still attend to that school even after my warnings on my previous letters. I hope you can reconsider and leave the school as fast as you can. Probably you don't believe me, since I really did the worst to you... and your mother. I had some complications I explained to you on my previous letters, you should already know how dangerous it would be for you to stay there, your life may be in danger like mine is and like your mother was. Please reconsider leaving. I won't ask you anything more, it is also a danger to me, you being there... so just do it before it's too late. Sign: Your father, Faust!"

Jellal finished reading the letter but couldn't express what he felt right now… He was confused, curious and at the same time scared.

Confused of what the hell was going on with this girl and her father, curious and scared because he feared his father was behind this and now he seriously thought it was a bad decision picking up this letter, even though he did it because he already knew Ultear was suspicious.

But right now he wanted so bad to believe this was just a small family issue, that it had nothing to do with his father, but he wasn't sure… He could only try and calm himself and somehow get the information out of Ultear without her knowing he knew something about it.

He shoved the letter into his school bag and as calmly as he could walked in the student council office direction.

…

"Natsu, stop tapping your feet on the ground and answer the damn question!"

Lucy giggled at the voice of her best friend scolding Natsu, again! She convinced Natsu and Gray to come study with her before they got to another fight leading them to a real problem with Erza… Though this wasn't any different but at least Lucy wasn't going to be blamed by it, she smirked.

"Lucy, you told us we were going to pick Erza up and have some lunch." She heard Gray whispering to her, trying to avoid getting caught by Erza.

Yeap, she had lied in order to convince them, what else?

"We will Gray, after this studying hour I will try bring Erza, you know we can't do anything before that. Also, this is a good opportunity for you and Natsu to study Math, you both suck at it." She said giggling, amused.

She saw Gray wasn't really satisfied with her comment but he sighed in defeat and tried to concentrate on the damn book in front of him, he knew he hadn't much of a choice now.

Erza was concentrated in studying with Ultear and Mirajane. Mirajane was a girl with long white hair and big blue eyes, she was the student council vice president so she was casually seen with Erza inside the office helping her with documents or studying with her, when the president wasn't overworking alone by herself, of course. Ultear joined them both this year, Erza found she was confident enough in studying so she gladly accepted helping her out, she already knew Ultear from last year and even though not everything started out well with them, she was happy with the girl's friendship now.

She absent minded heard someone knocking on the door and Mirajane getting up from her seat.

She easily answered a difficult question from her book before Mirajane's voice got her attention.

"Ultear, someone is here for you!" she said, a little louder than she intended.

Erza glanced at the door, expecting a pink haired girl only to spot a blue haired guy with some kind of tattoo under and above his dark green right eye. His shirt was untucked from his pants and its top button was unbuttoned. She broke her pencil without realizing it and a vein popped out on her head. _This guy had trouble written all over his face._

"Oh, Jellal, come over!" She heard Ultear shout to him.

She saw him getting closer and tried to calm down, _not today_, she thought. He was probably a new student, since she hadn't see him before, she would ask Ultear to recall him the rules, later.

She turned to her book again and tried to concentrate on it again. _Uh what happened to my pencil?_ She wondered, confused after seeing it broken in half, only then realizing she could've had broken it earlier by surprise.

Jellal was getting closer to Ultear's table and he glanced at a familiar Scarlet hair, she was in front of Ultear's seat, and next to them was a white haired girl and a pink haired guy, the same from before, fighting alongside Gray.

He also saw Gray studying, which was quite new to him. He suddenly realized this was probably the most unsettling and stressing room he stepped on. _With all the people he didn't want to get involved with_… Oh dear lord help him.

He finally reached Ultear's seat and talked to the girl. "I was thinking if you could help me with sciences, and what a good idea I had coming here, it seems you are studying already." He commented, as if he didn't know.

"Oh…? You want to study? I never knew you were interested in it." She responded, she seemed amused, in these two weeks he had avoided talking about any kind of school subject.

Jellal wasn't really interested, she was right, but he had to do something to get closer, even though it annoyed him to do so.

"Hm yea… I am good with almost anything but sciences, and I need to get a better grade at it." He lied.

It was true sciences was his worst subject, but he was still not that as bad as to need any help.

"Well you know, sciences isn't really my best subject, I am better with geometry. I really suck at Math and Sciences though…" She said, a little too embarrassed to admit it in front of them. "But, I know who can help you instead, the student council president is pretty much good at every subject, right Erza?"

He saw the scarlet haired girl in front of Ultear slightly flinch at the mention, still not looking up and nervously avoiding him, was she the president of the student council? So her name was Erza… He wasn't liking how this was going on, he didn't think about Ultear actually not being good at sciences, how stupid of him. He assumed she was good when watching earlier how Ultear had helped Meredy with her Science Homework, but he didn't realize it could have been because Ultear always got help studying, and the fact Meredy was actually one year younger was even more clear now why.

He cursed in his mind, he first wanted to study with Ultear only to get some information out of her, but now he seemed stuck on a dangerous predicament with a certain person he wanted to avoid, after the scene he witnessed on his first day of school.

"Ah, no it's oka..." he didn't have the time to finish his thoughts as he saw Ultear getting up suddenly from her seat.

"Here, I give you my seat, I can keep studying with Mirajane." She said while pushing Jellal down on her previous seat, she really looked amused. "Have fun!" She mocked, smirking while taking Mirajane and Natsu to another table… _This girl… did she notice I was avoiding the scarlet haired girl?_

Jellal sweat dropped while he saw Ultear happily seating with the others, he turned to the scarlet girl in front of him and she was now staring at him. She had fiery brown eyes that were glancing over his tattoo... then went down to his shirt…

He swallowed nervously, she was pretty now that he could see her face up this close… but she had trouble written all over her attitude. He didn't want to get involved with this girl at all!

Erza was glancing over the blue haired guy in front of her, she pretty much heard Ultear calling him Jellal before, not that mattered, he was the kind of person she wanted to avoid, but she thought she didn't have a choice, after all, he was also a student and Ultear asked her to help him… she only had to help him study right? _His unnerving face won't unsettle me_, she thought sighing… She didn't want to get involved with this guy at all!

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**That is it for my 3rd chapter, it was really funny how Erza and Jellal seemed to have the same thoughts about each other right, hehehe :D I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and things are getting interesting and mysterious, but I won't spoil anything *evil smile***

**I hope you enjoy this new chapter, and wait for the next one soon ;D Have fun!**


	4. I won't lose!

**I hope you enjoy today's chapter! Leave a review if you like!**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail, it belongs to Hiro Mashima :D**

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**Chapter 4: I won't lose!**

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Erza was happy with her new year at school, Natsu and Gray were behaving way better than last year… Lucy was getting more and more friends, which made Erza really happy. Lucy always trailed behind Erza since they were young, not that she complained about it, but she wanted for Lucy to get more confident, she was kind and pretty after all, and she deserved more friends than she already had.

Even though this year was busier, she was still happy being with Lucy and her new colleagues. Mirajane was a kind girl that she knew already but Ultear surprised her in a good way, she recalled how last year she caused some trouble… But now it appeared that she was redeeming herself for what happened.

And Erza… she was glad she made out this far on her own, she always tried to be responsible and strong and she wanted to continue this way through her last two years of High School.

_But this situation…_

Erza was facing a new blue haired student who was staring back at her. She didn't have any kind of problem helping students study, she preferably chose girls though, boys would always be some stupid perverts or lazy enough to even try to learn… She was okay with dealing with them though, she would mostly the cases, punch them or leave them to Mirajane. But this guy…

"And so, this goes like this…" Erza continued, explaining him an exercise.

This guy was calmly taken her advice and that is to be normal but, what wasn't normal was he could perfectly complete even more complicated exercises than some he asked for, _what was he playing at?_

Jellal was quietly completing the exercises on his notebook while thinking about how to get some information out of Ultear, even though he couldn't concentrate much as he felt the mighty president's stare on his face the whole time… He felt like she was calculating him and he didn't like that feeling.

He glanced up at her and tried to start a conversation with her, to see if she would calm down around him. "W…What about you? Aren't you going to study?" He asked, unsure on how to start.

He saw her flinch at his comment, like he snapped her out of her thoughts.

"I will, I'm taking a break." She told him, nervously.

He glanced over her table as if not believing her much... her book was opened and he could spot a broken pencil beside it, he was sure he saw her broke it earlier when he entered the office.

"What happened to your pencil?" He asked smirking.

"I…I don't know!" She answered, louder than she expected. _How amusing._

"Well, why you didn't tell me about it earlier, I can lend you one of mine." He said, calmly searching for one and lending it to her. _She was kind of cute when embarrassed. _He thought smirking, it was interesting to see a cute side out of the mighty president everyone talked about, he imagined her being a lot more scarier.

"Oh... T…thank you." She took the pencil from Jellal's hand unsure and he couldn't understand why she was so nervous around him, but he thought it was really amusing.

"That was nothing… thank you for helping me study by the way."

He saw her nodding briefly and grabbing her book to study.

_She seems much more normal than I thought after that scene the first day._ He pondered.

"AHHH, I can't take this any longer." Natsu shouted suddenly. "Oi Erza, let's just go eat something, I'm starving!"

He saw Erza getting up and throw a book at Natsu, handing perfectly on his face.

"Shut up!" She shouted angrily. "If you want to go eat, just go by yourself!"

Then she went back to her seat opening another book and acting like nothing happened. _Never mind what I said._

Natsu's weak "aye, sorry." Was heard as he left quietly -probably to go eat something - getting Gray with him.

Jellal could notice how one by one, the students were leaving, they were going to take some lunch, he guessed, they were here for already one hour, even though Jellal arrived only 30 minutes ago, slightly after Ultear. The blue haired boy realized the one hour section turned out to be more like two hours now.

"You should make a break too, go grab something to eat, we can continue later." Erza told him, absent minded.

"Nah, it's okay. I just started." He answered. Ultear was still there too, he would wait for her. "Shouldn't you be the one taking a break?" He stated.

Erza lifted an eyebrow. "It's okay, I can eat later and I'm not that hungry anyway." She said. "However, I feel like we may need at least a drink, let me go get some." She got up in an instant and left.

He could have proposed her to go take her something but he knew she would have said no… most likely.

Jellal thought about to take this opportunity to talk to Ultear but he saw how she left her seat and followed Erza, saying she also wanted a drink. _Bad timing_ … He sighed as a blonde haired girl sat in front of him, taking Erza's place.

"Hey!" She started with a happy smile on her face. He sweat dropped,_ here we go again_. "How's study going? I know studying with Erza must be difficult but you actually surprised me hanging on for 30 minutes… Most of the boys only take 5 to 10 minutes before Erza sends them flying." She added giggling.

He didn't know how to feel about that, should he be proud? He sighed again.

"And who are you?" He asked, not really interested to know but what else could he say?

"Oh... Sorry I guess I didn't even present myself. I am Lucy, one of Erza's friends, nice to meet you!" She told him happily. "You are Ultear's friend right? I'm actually happy she got another friend apart from Meredy, after all that happened last year."

One of Jellal's eyebrow raised at the comment. "What happened last year?"

"Oh… you didn't know?" She answered unsure, this time she had a sad smile on her face. "Well, I guess Ultear wouldn't like to talk about it… What I can tell you from what I know is that Ultear passed through a lot, and last year she caused a big commotion… And I know Erza and Gray helped her a lot that time around, I also know it happened because of her parents death!" She dropped her head at the thought.

"Wait, her parents died?" He questioned confused,_ if her parents died, how did she received a letter from her father? Was it an old letter?_

"Yes… They died 2 years ago and she started to have a break down, but last year she almost didn't make it, it was that bad… I feel bad for her too, she loved her parents." Lucy said, bringing her right hand to her chest.

He was so confused at this point… it didn't make any sense… when he read the letter he had the impression it was as if the man wasn't living with his daughter and he even wrote something like 'hateful father' on it…_ what was happening? Could the letter not belong to Ultear after all?_

Lucy snapped him out of his thinking asking. "You okay?"

"Y…Yeah… I was just taken aback with all this… I didn't know at all." He lied, but it was true he didn't know about it at least.

"Sorry if I made you worry… but it's okay now though, she came a long way but she is happier now!" She showed him an honest happy smile.

"Hm, thank you for letting me know." He told her, sincerely.

Jellal was starting to get tired from all this mystery. Now that he supposed_ the _girl wasn't Ultear, he had to start all over again. Still, he had to ask Ultear about that damn letter anyway, so it wasn't all lost.

Speaking of it, Erza and Ultear were back… Lucy happily jumped from her seat and run to hug the scarlet head girl.

"Oh Erza, you brought me my favorite drink, thank you!" She said to her friend kissing her on the cheek, taking the drink from her hand and going back to her previous seat, leaving an embarrassed Erza blinking.

Erza came to sit again in front of Jellal, lending him a drink. "Here, Ultear told me you like this one."

"Oh... Yes, thank you, you didn't have to." He said calmly opening it to take a sip.

"Well, how could I possibly bring something only for me? Also, we are studying for 30 min more before going to lunch… even though you don't really need to… Are you going to tell me why you lied to Ultear saying you need her to help you on sciences?" She said smirking while opening her strawberry flavored drink.

Jellal almost choked on his drink when he heard what she said… He tried to keep it cool outside but the fact she just saw through him got him panicking, this girl was dangerous.

"So?" She asked amused.

He wasn't about to go down by this scarlet haired girl, if she wanted to play, he would play, hell he didn't really had a choice anyway.

"You got me…" He started, a smirk appearing on his face. "You know, I heard from her about the mighty student council president and I wanted to see by myself how she was like…" He said teasing her, touching the tip of her hair with his right hand's fingers.

Erza flinched at the touch and blushed slightly at the comment, feeling embarrassed, she backed up a little bit… _This guy… She wanted to punch him so bad. _She thought while a vein popped out on her forehead while she took a sip of her drink to calm herself. _But I'm not gonna lose to you!_

He saw her pink cheeks at his action and smiled, she was incredible cute, this side of her was really interesting too.

Erza tried to calm herself down, she stared at him and quirked her eyebrow. She knew he was just lying to make her think that was the reason, but she also didn't really mind he did, she wasn't really interested about knowing his real reason, she just didn't want to lose to him.

She observed how he understood she didn't buy his excuse by the look on his face, his smirk from before replaced with a frown.

They somehow started a staring contest, both not wanting to lose to each other… Fortunately Mirajane seemed to feel this and came by, joining them at the table.

"Erza… do you help me with this question?" She tried, trying to break the ice.

"Oh… Yes, of course Mira." Erza said, breaking the eye contact with Jellal and focus on her friend.

Jellal took in a deep breath, secretly thanking Mirajane in his head… He didn't know what to do anymore, he just wanted to go away from this room and go get some lunch now that his mind was exhausted.

"Oi Jellal, let's go eat something!" Ultear suddenly said, as if reading his mind.

Jellal excused himself taking on his bag and utensils happily accepting Ultear's request. They both left the room leaving only Erza, Mirajane and Lucy inside.

Erza frowned watching them leave, she was finally at peace… She didn't know why but this Jellal guy unsettled her more than she would like, he was like those kind of people she had at the 'annoying person list', and of course Natsu and Gray were listed there too.

She glanced down at her book and tried to concentrate for like the 3rd time in this freaking hour. She noticed the pencil and remembered it was Jellal's… She sighed annoyingly, she will have to give it back later, _Great!_

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**I am leaving it at this, next chapter more revelations will take place, ahahaha, and even though Erza and Jellal's relationship seem a little weird for now, they will get their moments later ;D**


	5. Motives

**Before the chapter beggins I would like to remind you, and myself:**

**Fairy Tail and its characters all belong to Hiro Mashima! :D**

**Go watch it again even if you did already, hahaha**

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**Chapter 5: Motives**

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"Erza, where are you going?" Lucy asked, seeing her friend getting up and starting to leave.

"Ah, I forgot something at the dorm, next class starts in 30 minutes so I think it's better for me to go get it now." Her red haired friend answered, calmly.

"What about lunch?" Lucy asked again, even though she knew Erza won't probably eat, because she was always in a hurry.

"I'll grab something on my way to class. See ya there Lucy." She said and disappeared before Lucy could say anything more. She face palmed. _What to do with this friend of mine._

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Jellal and Ultear were walking slowly, discussing about what they would take to eat once they get to the school's canteen, they didn't check on the menu today, so they were making suppositions out of boredom.

"So… What was that aura between you and the president before? You two looked like two cute kids who didn't want to lose to each other." Ultear changed the subject laughing more than she thought she would when she saw Jellal flinch to her question.

"W..What are you saying? We were just talking about… sciences." He said, nervous.

"Yeah, of course… And I was talking with Mirajane about a pig I saw earlier, flying…" She teased, laughing again at her own comment.

Jellal sighed nervously, he wouldn't possibly tell her Erza knew he lied about studying with her.

"Well, she was pesting me about studying more seriously… It's your fault I got stuck with the mighty president to begin with." He lied, trying to change the topic.

Ultear glanced over him and studied his face. "You know, Erza may be strict but she is very kind towards people she doesn't even know. She won't think twice about helping someone in need." She said changing her amused tone to a more serious one.

Jellal, taken by surprise at her sudden change of tone, was thinking about what Lucy told him before, something about Ultear's backstory.

"Talking from experience?" He asked, trying to seem like he didn't know a thing.

Ultear jumped at his question, only now realizing she said too much, but she knew it didn't matter anymore, she got past everything already and she didn't want it to bother her.

"Well, kinda…" She said, still looking at Jellal. "I did have a problem last year, and Erza did help me a lot, but I wasn't really trying to bring that up. I know Erza is like that with anyone and I only wanted for you to understand she might have her reasons to be like that, like I had mine when I had a breakdown."

Jellal didn't know either to be shocked at her honest answer or not, to be honest he didn't expect her to answer like that, but at the same time he could tell Lucy was right when she said she was alright now, she had friends and she got past through her problems, and that is why she told him the truth.

"You want to talk about it?" He asked, knowing she wouldn't anyway.

"Not really, it's over and to be honest it doesn't really matter anymore." She answered, sure of herself.

"Hm… So, what did you mean the president being 'like that'? You mean everyone saying she is scary? Or her being by herself most of the time?" He continued mostly because he was bored when they arrived at the canteen and had to wait behind a line of hungry students.

"I mean her being responsible and strict, her being by herself is when she gets workaholic at the student council. Ah… I think you didn't know but I was really annoyed at her at the beginning though." She was smiling, recalling the beginning of their now friendship.

"Eh? Why?" He asked amused, it was rare to see Ultear actually being annoyed at someone, well he thought maybe that was because he didn't know Ultear from before anyway, when she was having her own problems.

"You know, when I actually met her after my breakdown and all, she always got stuck inside the damn council office, I tried so many times bringing her out with us to the karaoke or even to eat something, but she wouldn't just move until she finished the damn papers!" She started facing the line of students now, being unconsciously annoyed at the thought and talking louder. "So, I really thought she was a damn workaholic but Lucy then explained to me she was like that because she didn't like to depend on anyone and she didn't ever ask for help, which annoyed me even more, somehow." She sighed, then glanced at Jellal still annoyed. "She is so stubborn!" She exploded.

Jellal sweat dropped. "Do you think that is really you reminding the past? It looks like you still think that way to me."

"So then…" She kept going, completely ignoring Jellal. "I tried to make her more feminine, like lying to her about wanting her to study with me and Lucy, only to make her try new dresses… even though I hated studying. Or try to get her a boyfriend, which always ended up being a failure, she always saw through my lies!"

Jellal really thought how ironic this was but he couldn't say nothing about it, he did understand her lying about studying, he did the same not long ago and he gritted his teeth with the memory, now he got why Erza was so quick to understand it was a lie, she surely was pretty used by now with Ultear's past attempts.

Also, he didn't even wanted to comment on the boyfriend thing, it didn't make any sense why would she try getting her one, more like, it was obviously fake since most of the guys here were scared of her, right?

"So, the thing is…" She continued changing to a serious but sad tone. "Lucy told me how she got like this after her mother's death. She was left with an old friend of her parents and was taken care of, but she was really depressed at first. Lucy said she didn't want to befriend her at first either, she didn't trust anyone, she didn't want anyone to get close to her, she was afraid of suffer losing someone again…" She explained while walking with him and sitting at an empty table somewhere at the canteen, they had already picked up their food.

Jellal suddenly was listening intently to what Ultear said, it wasn't like he was really interested on Erza and Ultear friendship at first but, he just felt like listening to it now, he didn't really know how hard her past would've been, seems like Ultear was right and everyone had their ulterior motives to be as they are.

Also Jellal felt Ultear needed to get it all out, like she was just trying to get someone to understand a really hard Math exercise she had solved before.

"Eventually she ended up accepting Lucy but when that old man died she decided to take life more serious, she was forced to get a part time job while she was only 14, she couldn't really work because of her age but she found someone who was willing to pay to her illegally. Lucy wanted to help her but Erza always wanted to do it by herself and didn't want to bother Lucy about it, even when she was sick she wouldn't say a word. That's what really bothers me about Erza, even though I still get annoyed because of her attitude, it really makes me sad for her." She said lowering her gaze to her untouched food. "Lucy told me all this one day, when Erza was sick at home, she was really worried about her so she told me about it while crying, it made me really annoyed too, cuz she helped me a lot last year, yet, she never wants for anyone to help her."

Jellal listened to it all quietly and somehow there was something that was bothering him this whole time, so he decided to ask her about it. "Hum.. You said her mother died.. What about her father? Did he also...?"

"Oh…" She glanced up at him again, taking some food to her mouth, feeling calmer now that she got it all out. "I tried asking her that too, but she just muttered he died and walked away… Lucy later told me he wasn't really dead but even _she_ doesn't know what happened between them, seems like that topic is taboo for Erza. Maybe that's why she wouldn't trust any man too." She said joking, even though he knew that was probably the exact reason why.

Jellal crossed his arms over his chest while thinking. Ultear sensed he was digesting all of her story and went back to eat her food, leaving him to his thoughts.

_It seems like she had some kind of problem with her father too uh, she kinda reminds me the ME from before, before being like this, simply ignoring everything and just do as I am told…_ He remarked, a little disappointed on the _him_ from the present.

_But what matter is, she doesn't have anyone now to take care of her… that is why she seems so mature and responsible, she would get strict and annoyed at others with a more carefree life and they would get scared. _Not that Jellal could blame it on her, the way she kept pushing the others away from her life was probably only her way of protecting herself, like she created an invisible armor that couldn't break.

"She seems like an idiot." He whispered to himself, half smiling.

His phone started ringing snapping him out of his thoughts. He glanced down at it and read the message he just received.

"_I am waiting for you outside your school, come see me in five minutes." _He read in his mind, it was his father.

He sighed annoyed at it and he heard Ultear ask him what was wrong.

He knew his father was going to ask him if he got anything on the 'freaking annoying case' he had to help him with.

He suddenly remembered about the letter and tried to ask Ultear, now that he had the chance.

"You know, the other day I caught a glimpse of you being annoyed at a poor letter in your hands and then you suddenly threw it away." He said smirking. "What was the deal with it? A letter from your boyfriend?"

She jumped at the question and a vein popped out in her forehead. "W…What are you.. so suddenly…" Ultear didn't know why he suddenly told her about THAT, or why... but decided to answer anyway, she didn't want anyone to think what Jellal was exactly thinking right now.

"It wasn't mine." She answered, slightly annoyed at her blue haired friend. "I was annoyed cuz I didn't really want to open it but at the same time I didn't want to go around and ask who that letter was for, or bring it to the principal's... so I threw it away!"

Jellal smirk increased when she told him that. "You are really bad at making decisions." He simply stated, making her even more annoyed at him.

Now that he knew it wasn't hers, like he already thought, he excused himself saying his father was waiting for him, leaving Ultear eating the rest of her food and shouting something like "This doesn't end here." To him.

**…**

Jellal walked slowly towards his father and observed how his father spotted him and didn't move a muscle to greet him.

"How is school going for you these first days?" He started, with a cold but calm tone.

"Great." He responded, not giving much interest to his father's fake questions.

"Did you find something interesting?" _Finally he got to the main point._

Jellal hesitated but decided to give him the letter he found, he knew it wasn't Ultear's, and honestly had no idea who it could be, so he didn't have anything to be afraid of, also, he was curious to know if it really was his father's doing and to possibly get more information about this whole thing.

"I don't know if it has anything to do with you but, it seemed suspicious enough." Jellal stated, lending him the letter.

His father grabbed the letter and read it, his eyes widened for a second before going back to his usual cold calm face. Jellal thought he may be behind all this after all.

"Good job... so who had this letter, did you find the girl?" His father asked him, while shoving the letter on his pocket.

"Unfortunately I found it on the ground so I have no idea. I tried to search for it but the person I thought was linked to it, at the end, it really wasn't." Jellal said, sincerely.

He saw his father's face change to annoyance for a second, before looking calm again.

"Well, only two weeks passed, I think you didn't really had the time to it, it was lucky enough you found this letter, this confirms she is indeed at this school. And to think her father is still sending her those under my nose..." His father commented in a cold murder tone, it made Jellal want to puck.

"Do you want me to ask the principal to search for the owner?" Jellal proposed, it wouldn't be sure they would find her, but at least it gave them more possibilities of doing so than to just hide the letter.

"No, not the principal, he shouldn't get involved in this." He discarded the option. "I just need for you to find her yourself."

"If you gave me more information about it, I could obviously search faster." He stated, getting tired of this.

"You don't need any information about this matter, just continue bringing me anything you find." He spat, coldly. "You really are like your mother, trying to get your nose everywhere, that is the reason she got killed, can't you understand that?"

Jellal's fists clenched, he knew his mother got assassinated by someone who hated his father and his work. _It was all his fault, being in that dark underground job_. He glanced to his father, fury in his eyes.

"Don't look at me like that insolent, are you challenging me?" Angry, he started raising his arm, ready to slap Jellal at any moment.

Jellal was about to say something when one known scarlet haired girl got between him and his father.

He blinked in surprise at her back and knew immediately it was the council president.

"Who do you think you are, sir?" She asked the man, pointing a finger at him.

Jellal sweat dropped, _what was she thinking?_

The blue haired boy's father slowly stared at the girl, getting his raised arm down again. "I am this his father, now if you would excuse us…" However he got cut from his words as an annoyed Scarlet girl interjected.

"You… call yourself a father and yet, you speak to your son as if he was some kind of rat." She was angry.

Jellal didn't know what to think about the rat part… but getting back to reality, he didn't understand why Erza had got in the middle of his stupid father and him, she should mind her own business. He wanted to stop her, but mainly because he was afraid of what his father could do.

"Oi, you..." He tried, but his father got ahead of him.

Jellal's father was even angrier now, he stared at the red haired girl with an angry expression and demanded. "And who are you?" Her unnerving eyes made him think about a certain someone, he hated that.

"I am the student council president and I am going to ask you to be less rude in front of our school.. Your personal matters can be discussed anywhere else!" She said, letting her arm go down on her side before her fist clenched. She didn't know why but after what she heard about Jellal's mother and how he lift his hand to probably hit him, this man made her really irritated.

Jellal could see his father shocked expression, he was like he was somewhat afraid or nervous of Erza's stare, he didn't really know why but seeing his father unsettled by someone's actions was really interesting and rare to him.

His father suddenly laughed and turned away. "This school really has some unnerving students uh? I don't mind that at all, we will continue this talk later Jellal." He said as he left, he had nothing to lose, his conversation with his son could wait and getting an unwanted attention on him was something he wanted to avoid.

Jellal sighed in relief and glanced slightly down to Erza, she had saved him from doing whatever he was about to do, but it made him kind of annoyed knowing she got in the middle of it, who knew what his father could've done.

_Why would she do it?_ He wondered.

"_You know, Erza may be strict but she is very kind towards people she doesn't even know. She won't think twice about helping someone in need."_

He recalled Ultear's saying it to him and sighed again, his pride wasn't really happy with this. _This girl…_

"Oi." She started, turning around and facing him, startling the boy. "If you let him say those things to you every time, he just won't stop doing it!" She scolded him.

Jellal's eyes widened with her comment. He knew things wouldn't change if he didn't get to his father and stop him, but he was somewhat afraid, and he knew what he was capable of. He knew he couldn't go against him, at least for now.

His fists clenched and he was about to say something when he saw her glancing down and starting to mumble, suddenly.

"I… sorry for meddling in your family problem, it just… really made me angry hearing him saying that about your mother…" She said making him flinch with the mention of it. _So she heard that._

"A father shouldn't say those things to his child, a real one should raise you well, play with you, comfort you, making you laugh..." His eyes widened one more time. "...buy you sweets, hold your hand and protect you from harm…" glaring down at this red haired girl and listening to her thoughts made him really unsettled and tears could be seen appearing on his eyes, while his memory traveled to the past, some of the moments he shared with his father was forming in his mind, not much of them being any good after his mother's death.

But he knew she wasn't only talking about him, but of herself too.

"Idiot." He said turning around so she wouldn't be able to see his tears. He started to walk away, going inside the school again.

Erza glanced up at his comment, confused. She didn't hear what he said but she tried to change the conversation quickly, watching him going away.

"Ah… wait, I want to give you back your pencil, which is why I ran towards you when I saw you out here!" She said starting to follow him.

"It's okay, you can keep the pencil. I have to hurry to class, don't follow me!" He didn't want for her to come near.

_This girl… Ultear was right._

_And so was he, she really was an idiot._ He thought, smiling.

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**I hope you enjoy today's chapter, leave a review if you want :D**


	6. Busy President

Hello, I'm back with another chapter.

**I want to say thanks to dear Guest for leaving a review, I'm happy you like the mystery and the characters, I am trying not to change much of them from their real personality, and this is how I imagine Jellal's personality if Jellal didn't already know Erza of course. I hope you enjoy the rest of the story!**

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**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.**

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**Chapter 6: Busy President**

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One month has passed since school started, two weeks since last event.

Erza was at the student council office with Mirajane, they were even busier now that the first exams of the first semester were coming up.

"President, I did a list of all club activities including all students names in them, just like you asked." Pointed out a boy.

"Oh, thank you Riku! You can put it down on that table please." Erza requested, glancing briefly at him and pointing at another table.

Riku was a boy with light green, slightly curly, short hair and black eyes. He had lots of fangirls since he was considered handsome by most of the girls. He was one of the council members and the one Erza trusted the most with important council 'jobs'. They had known each other since middle school and decided to be part of the council later on, since both of them were good with paperwork and both had high grades.

As he laid down the list on the table, Erza added. "Are you taking part of the basketball tournament this year?"

Riku glared at the red haired girl and smiled, confident. "Yes! I will do my best."

Erza smirked and focused on her work again, happy that Riku could finally participate. Last year he was badly sick and unfortunately he couldn't make it to the tournament.

Riku and Erza weren't really close like best friends, but they shared lots of moments since their middle school, Erza saw him more like her little brother, even though he was one year older than her… And she was happy to have him there, he was a kind and reliable person.

Riku also saw Erza as his little sister and sometimes he'd been worried about her and her stubbornness, but eventually got used to it. He was also happy he was part of this with Erza and the others, Riku also had a girl he liked but his fans were so annoying he had to go out secretly with her, but he was really happy either way.

"President, don't overdo it at the Jiu-Jitsu competition." He added, recalling last year and how Erza was so motivated and stubborn, she got injured on its last day, even if it led her to actually win the match.

"Oh, yeah... but I will think about that when the time comes anyway, right now we have to prepare for the exams... and school camp." She said not even glancing up from the papers. They were organising a two weeks camp after the exams and the final of the first semester, motivating students to have a reason to study for them.

"Eh? But the club tournaments are a month and half from now!?" He said confused since usually they always had to prepare beforehand.

Erza jumped from her seat and sweat dropped. _One month? _She didn't realized.

"Why are you telling me that only now?" She tensed. "Just pass me that list, I will start today when I finish these damn papers."

Riku laughed, Erza always forgot the important things because she always gave her 100% on what she was doing at the moment, she would probably stay here until very late today, doing all that… but he knew he couldn't change her mind anyway, so he just handed her the list and went to help preparing for the exams.

**…**

"Jellal, let's eat together!" Meredy shouted running towards Jellal at the school yards.

Jellal was quietly eating under a tree and glanced up to see Meredy just after her shout, which somehow made Jellal to hate her for a second. She quickly sat down beside him and happily started biting her sandwich.

"whes Utea?" She asked, chewing her sandwich at the same time.

Jellal gave her a disapproving look but replied the same. "Ultear is at the council office, she said she would come to lunch with us though."

Jellal tried to avoid Ultear and Meredy after the last event with his father. He first approached the girl to find out if she had anything to do with that case but after all this and knowing she doesn't, he didn't really want to get closer to her, he didn't want any friendship or close people, he knew he would probably leave anyway, when this was all over. But Ultear and Meredy always followed him around, enjoying his presence even if he was quiet, so he just gave up and accepted their company.

"And here I am! Mind if I join?" Ultear suddenly said, appearing from behind the tree with her lunch box in her hands. Meredy was heard choking on her food as she was surprised with Ultear's presence.

She sat down before they could answer and started eating, inviting herself in.

"Ultear! You are at that student council office more than with us now!" Meredy whimpered.

The black haired girl chuckled. "Sorry about that, we are actually very busy there with exams coming, and the club activities too… I mean the competitions are here in a month, so…"

"Club activities uh…" Jellal whispered, thinking he hadn't actually applied for any.

"Oh, do you want to join one? I can make you a list so you can chose wisely." Ultear advised.

"No, that's okay, I have no interest of joining any for now." He quickly denied.

"That's a pity." Said Meredy this time. "You could come to Arts club with me."

Jellal didn't comment anything on this. He just stared at Meredy with a 'no' written all over his face.

"What about you? Which club are you on?" He asked Ultear, suddenly thinking he didn't really never heard her talk about it.

"Any, I don't really want to join any club, I already have the council to worry about." She replied, seeming tired of it.

Meredy nodded as if she agreed with the statement, but she was just probably thankful Ultear didn't get any more busier than this.

Some minutes later and they had finished their lunch. They heard the bell ring and went to class, Meredy taking a different way from them.

**…**

Classes went through fast and finished before they could even process, they had two that afternoon but one of them was canceled, since the teacher was absent… though they had someone else to force them to work anyway, making them stay at the classroom and study. That last class they had was Geometry and it was shared with class 2-B, so Erza and Ultear studied happily as Natsu and Gray pestered Lucy, or as Jellal fell asleep bored. It was a little over the chaos since the teacher wasn't there today, Erza had to throw some of her books at Natsu again.

When class was over, the red head went over the council office again trying to finish everything she had to do. She felt really exhausted but she wanted to do as much as she could so she won't be late with the preparations at the last moment.

Mirajane, Riku and all the others tried to offer her their help but she insisted they go home and rest, since they were there all day helping her already.

"It's hot in here." She mumbled after opening a window nearby and going back to her seat, laying her head on the table. "I still need to finish all these though."

**…**

Meredy and Jellal were waiting for Ultear outside their classroom,when class finished they started walking to the dorms but Ultear suddenly asked to come back as she had forgotten something.

Meredy had just hung up her phone when they heard Ultear's voice.

"Sorry for making you wait." Ultear shouted, coming through the door just after that.

"It's okay, did you get what you wanted?" Jellal asked, not really bothered with it.

"Yea but…" She glanced down at her hands, she was carrying some papers. "I also forgot to take this to Erza, she will probably kill me tomorrow if I don't lend it to her."

"Oh, are you going to her dorm to give it to her?" Asked Meredy this time, slightly confused.

"No, I'm pretty sure she is at the council office." Ultear said bluntly.

"Why is she there? Class already ended." Meredy seemed even more confused now.

Jellal could only sigh and think the stupid president was doing all she could, overworking again. That explained why he didn't see her at all these days apart from class, after what happened last time. But it was better for him that way, he didn't want to deal with her. At their last shared class he noticed how Ultear rushed to Erza's side and he sat at the corner and tried his best to sleep to avoid any interaction with these two.

"She is… finishing some paperwork." Ultear replied, annoyed at the stubborn president.

"So?" Meredy was waiting for her to just spit out whatever she wanted to say.

"The thing is, I really have something to do. Mirajane asked me to go with her somewhere and we have to meet in 10 minutes, can't you go give her this for me instead, Meredy?" She pleaded, staring at the pink haired girl.

"Eh, but my parents are waiting for me at the dorms, I told them I would be there right away. Why can't we just give it to her tomorrow?" The pink haired girl panicked, not wanting to say NO to her friend but even more to her parents, they were kind of strict with time and all and she just confirmed her presence when they called her a few minutes ago.

Ultear sighed. "She need this to finish what she is doing." Ultear explained, thinking about what to do.

The black haired girl glanced over Jellal with pleading eyes, she saw him flinch and looking away. She knew he didn't like go to the student council office since last time she forced him to study with Erza, even though she didn't really understand why.

"Jellal, please." She started. "You just have to hand her these and go back."

When she saw he was hesitating, she tried another way. "Oh wait, are you actually afraid of Erza too?" She smiled evilly.

Jellal winced and grabbed the papers Ultear had. "Why would I be afraid of her? I just didn't want to go all the way there only to give these." He retorted.

Ultear chuckled and Meredy lifted her eyebrow, not really sure what was all this.

Ultear grabbed Meredy's wrist and started to pull her over the exit after shouting 'thanks' to Jellal, who was already on his way to the council office, much to his dismay.

.

Jellal knocked on the council office, reluctantly. He had decided to give it to her as soon as she opened the door and then leave right afterwards.

He recalled a few days ago, how Ultear pestered him about his uniform and how the president would most likely punch him if he saw him again like that. He tucked his shirt inside with one hand while waiting for her to open the door, but nobody came.

He frowned and opened it, he would kill Ultear if there was no one inside.

The blue haired boy stepped inside the office spotting the scarlet girl at the right, her head on the table, facing the opposite direction. He could see some of the papers falling down on the ground with the breeze coming from the opened window.

He paced towards her and glanced over… She was sleeping.

He sighed in relief, like this he really didn't have to actually interact with her at all.

Jellal placed the papers on the table and went to close the window so they won't fly with the wind. He didn't understand why she opened it to begin with, it was kind of cold outside, at this hour.

He glanced over her face one more time, noticing her frowning face, like she was in pain.

"Is she having a nightmare?" He whispered to himself, confused.

Jellal got closer and noticed her red cheeks. His eyebrows quirked and he instantly placed his left hand on her forehead. "She is burning." He stated, quit annoyed at it. The blue haired boy crossed his arms over his chest and added quietly. "Idiot."

She really was an idiot, she probably overworked until the point she got sick, _so much to finish these._

He sighed annoyed at the thought, _what if he hadn't come to give her the papers?_

"Idiot." He stated, louder than before, trying to reach her somehow.

She didn't even flinch at his comment, he guessed she was really out. He wondered about waking her up but thought twice and decided to carry her to the dorm, it wasn't far away anyway, and it was better than trying waking her up since she had a high fever.

Jellal dialed Ultear's number and after she answered, he quickly asked her what number was the president's dorm's. After Ultear's hesitant reply and before she could add 'why?' to her reply, he hung up the phone.

He took Erza on his arms after taking all the papers she had on her table and putting them inside her bag, taking it along his own on his shoulder.

He walked over the room, towards the exit and was relieved knowing no one was around at this time around, it would be so misleading for others to see this.

Erza grabbed his shirt, clenching her hand on it, making him jump by surprise. He glanced over nervously and saw she was still sleeping and frowning, probably grabbing his shirt because of the pain. Feeling her so vulnerable like this made him uncomfortable, after what happened with his father. He quickened his pace, not trying to look at her too much. It still unsettled him, just like last time, and he didn't really want to duel on that thought.

**...**

Jellal knocked on her dorms door, unsure. He hoped her roommate was inside.

After a few seconds the door opened to reveal a blond haired girl, he knew her as Lucy. Her eyes went to confusion to surprise when she saw Erza on his arms.

"She… has a fever." The blue haired boy said avoiding her stare, somehow embarrassed.

She blinked but let him inside and led him to her room, so he could lay her down on her bed.

While he was placing her carefully on her bed and nervously taking her hand off from his shirt, Lucy quickly ran to grab a wet towel and some water and came back after that, taking some medicine too so she could give her once she woke up.

"What happened?" She asked while kneeling beside her friend placing the towel on her forehead, decreasing the temperature.

"I went to give her back some papers Ultear had forgotten, when I arrived she was sleeping with her head on the table, I saw her cheeks were red so I noticed she had a fever and decided to bring her here." Jellal explained, feeling calmer now that her face was slightly less in pain.

"Oh… she probably overworked again." She concluded, sighing with annoyance, not really surprised with it.

Lucy glanced over the blue haired guy and added. "Thank you for bringing her here, I'm sure she would be still sleeping at school and would wake up even worst tomorrow if you didn't. I'm kinda happy Ultear forgot these papers."

"Y…Yeah." He said quietly, still annoyed at the fact she actually was stupid enough to get sick with this. "I'll be going then."

Lucy saw how Jellal left, he was kind of mysterious, but she was happy he brought Erza here. The blond girl was already thinking about what to shout to her stupid friend when she woke up.

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**AN:**That's it for chapter 6, this chapter hadn't any mystery but I hope you enjoy, mystery won't appear on every chapter, and the story will be slow paced because I need to bring you all these details of their building relationships. I hate rushed relationships on fanfics tbh xD

About Riku, don't worry he won't be any boy who falls in love with Erza at all, I just wanted to create a character of my own hahaha xD You will probably like him too later on. Or so I hope :)

**Let's see what happens when Erza gets up next chapter.**


	7. Interest

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima!**

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**Chapter 7: Interest**

…

Erza felt her head heavy as soon as she tried opening her eyes. She blinked a few times to adjust them to the soft light beside her bed.

Lucy stared at her scarlet haired friend carefully not to scare her, she waited before her eyes were fully opened and staring back at her to finally say. "Hey, welcome back."

Erza tried to sit but her head hurt like hell so she just stayed down.

"Lucy, what happened? Why am I in my room?" She asked her friend, confused.

Erza recalled for sure she was at the council office last time, or was she going crazy?

"You overworked as always so here you are." Lucy was annoyed at her friend but tried her best to smile. "You were out for 2 hours only though, it's 8pm, you should eat something and then go back to sleep. Your fever isn't gone yet."

Erza was seen lost in thought, maybe pondering about something. "But, I have to finish some…"

"Don't worry about your 'duties'." Lucy interrupted her idiot friend's thinking. "I asked everyone at the council to help out with it, everyone is going to distribute a part of what you were doing so they can finish it faster."

Erza slightly frowned at this, she didn't want for others to have more work because of her fever.

"I… I am going to do it." She said getting up slowly, even though Lucy tried to stop her.

"Erza, you really should rest, I told you, everyone is helping!" Lucy scolded.

"I know but I am the president, I can't really just leave everything to everyone like that." Erza tried to make her friend understand, she didn't want to trouble others. "I'm going to the living room downstairs and do some of the paperwork, don't worry I promise I won't leave the dorms for the rest of the night and I will take on the medication." She added, knowing this would at least reassure her friend a little more.

Lucy frowned at her stubborn friend but let her go, she couldn't convince her to stay anyway.

"You know, you should at least try to rely on your friends once." She mumbled not looking at Erza who was already at the door, she was still upset with her friend's actions. "Also, Ultear's blue haired friend carried you here all the way from the student council, I think I should let you know that, you were lucky he found you there." She said louder now, may as well tell her how she got here before he would.

Erza's eyes widened a little bit - _so she wasn't dreaming and she was at the office before this -_ but knowing that a guy carried her all the way here, and more_… That guy_… she sweat dropped at the thought, usually people would just leave her alone to her doings, at least people who weren't Lucy or her other small group of friends. _So why did he do it?_ And it was so embarrassing to think about how people could've actually seen it, and the worst part... she didn't even remember anything about it.

Erza blushed, shaking a little at the thought while whispering a 'thanks' to Lucy, she started to go down the stairs after leaving her dorm room and went to the living room as planned.

The living room was a huge room at the Fairy Hills dorm, this is where everyone could gather and talk after or before school, since the living room was the first thing you crossed when entering the dorms. It consisted of a coffee machine as well as snacks vending machine as well as some couches and tables for comfort and study.

Erza sat down at one of the couches after taking a chocolate bar from the vending machine and started to work.

**…**

One hour passed and Erza could feel her fever returning, she felt hot and her head hurt, she would have to pause eventually to take some of her medicine, but she wanted to at least finish this one list she was doing before that.

"Oi, what are you doing here?"

Erza jumped at the question, she was so focused on her papers she didn't notice someone else was there, it was night time so she supposed everyone would be at their rooms. She glanced up and was shocked to see the blue haired boy there, staring at her with a calm studying face, a cup of milk on his right hand.

It was Ultear's friend, Jellal… Erza sweat dropped, recalling he was the one who carried her before.

She tried to forget about it shaking her head, then she glanced down again to her list and quietly stated. "I am working."

Jellal sat down beside the scarlet haired girl, he noticed her shlightly red cheeks and could tell her fever wasn't gone completely. He frowned and quietly took a sip of his milk, thinking about what to say without shouting at this stupid stubborn girl, after all the trouble he had with carrying her around.

"Wasn't your friend with you? I didn't think she would let you leave like that." He simply said, looking at his milk cup.

Erza flinched when she felt he had sat down next to her, she would have liked for him to just leave, she was tired and didn't want to deal with him… or anyone at all.

"Lucy? She actually didn't want me to leave the room but I have to finish these today." Erza explained, she thought he at least deserved an explanation after carrying her all the way here, even though she didn't know why he would bother asking.

Jellal could see she was tired, her fever was getting worse and she probably didn't even eat aside from maybe something from the vending machine. He assumed Lucy couldn't convince her to stay and she as always was overworking herself again, even though her friend would've been worried about her.

"So… You really are stubborn uh…" Jellal commented bluntly, now looking at her.

Erza flinched at the comment and glanced up at him slightly confused.

"What do you mean?" The red haired asked, feeling annoyed somehow.

"You think about doing everything by yourself without asking for any help, deciding it's the best since you won't bother anyone with your problems. But the thing is, your friends try to help you because they care about you, not because they think you are a bother and need help."

Jellal could see the scarlet president girl confused at his 'friendship' explanation, he sighed and tried to simplify. "What I mean is, you left your friend Lucy worried back at the room only because you want to finish these, even though you have a fever. This won't help your friends, it will only burden them with worrying about you." Jellal said, he could see Erza's eyes widening slowly while taking in all he was saying. "Just think about being it the opposite, think about Lucy being sick and leave the room turning her back on you and then get worse later on, even though you tried to stop her. That is being stubborn."

Erza frowned at the thought, she wouldn't like that to happen, Lucy usually listened to her when she said for her to rest, if not she would be worried and probably hit her and put her to sleep. Her jaw went slack at the realisation of what he just implied. Lucy was probably feeling the same, feeling useless and worrying about Erza. _What an idiot I am._

"If you don't want to worry your friends, then at least show them you can take care of yourself… I-d-i-o-t." He finished, smirking.

Erza blushed annoyed at his last word, but mostly because she was embarrassed someone could just lecture her like that and worse, he was completely right about it and she knew it.

The red haired girl got up from her seat and annoyed, she said. "I… I understand so please stop being rude." She clenched her fists, less confident now, feeling his teasing eyes on her. "I have to do something, I'll be back in 5 to 10 minutes, please wait for me since I still have something to say to you." She quickly left walking towards the stairs, she hoped for him to be there when she returned, she wanted to thank him properly but first, she needed to get back to her friend, and also take some medicine.

Jellal stared at her amused while she quickly disappeared at the stairs. He sighed in relief, he felt proud of himself knowing that she really understood what he said and took it seriously. She was most surely going to apologize to her friend, then comeback to probably thank him, though he would prefer if she didn't, the stubborn girl needed to rest. He glanced down at all the papers and sighed again, she would probably finish these before resting though.

He seized the list she was doing before and tried to understand what the girl was doing with it. He noticed it was quite pretty easy, it only took time to do so.

He grasped the pencil she was using and started to continue her work, out of boredom.

…

Lucy was surprised when her red haired friend stepped into their dorm room. She was already in her pajamas and ready to sleep. "Uh… did you forget something?" She asked confused.

Erza felt like a knife went through her heart seeing her friend looking at her like that, she knew she did wrong and felt bad for it… Erza took some steps forward after her friend's question and suddenly hugged her friend.

Lucy jumped at her action and tried to think the reason behind it. _Was it her fever?_

"Sorry Lucy." Erza said, feeling her friend's confused and worried eyes on her. "I'm sorry I made you worry, I promise I will be more careful and hear you out from now on, or at least try to."

Lucy could feel her eyes watering, she hugged her friend back and started crying softly, she was so glad her friend finally understood, or so it seemed that way at least. "Promise?" She asked, sobbing.

"Yes." Erza replied firmly, feeling guilty and also stupid for not realizing this sooner, at least for the sake of her best friend.

They broke apart from their hug after a moment and smiled at each other.

"So… what happened?" Lucy was still curious at her sudden change of mind.

"N…Nothing happened, I just realized I was being a little stubborn." She replied, blushing.

Lucy smiled, she knew her friend was probably lying but that was okay, she got to see one of Erza's cute side, which was rare.

"I'm going to take some medicine, take dinner and go down to the living room again, and don't worry I won't stay long, I almost finished it anyway, I promise I will sleep early." Erza was thinking about eat something, take her medicine right away and then go down and talk to Jellal, before finishing her work and coming to rest.

She left the room, leaving Lucy mumbling to herself something about 'cute Erza' and went to heat dinner that Lucy made before, she was feeling better just thinking about how happy her friend was right now.

The red haired girl ate dinner as fast as she could, probably not chewing it correctly and took on the medicine, she did this before going down because she was sure she would probably faint if she didn't.

15 minutes had passed since she came back to the dorm,the president was late_._

Erza left her dorm and walked quickly, going down the stairs. She finally got down to the living room only to find it empty, she sighed realizing it was too late and probably he thought she wouldn't return soon, so he went to sleep. The tired girl sat down at the same couch as before and grabbed her list, she wanted to finish this fast and go rest, her head was still hurting.

When she reached the point where she left from, the girl realized her list was somehow different and her eyebrows quirked up.

"What the…" The red haired student whispered, now frowning. Her list was completed, the hand writing was different some lines below, she surely remembered she didn't finish it too. Erza quickly grabbed the other papers and saw in shock how they were all completed. She spotted a small note laying at the table and also took it.

_"I knew idiot president would force herself to finish these so while I was bored waiting for a stubborn late president I finished them. Rest well."_

She clenched the paper, a vein popping out on her forehead. _Jellal did this!_

She was starting to think he was there only to annoy her from the start. _Screw the thanking._

She glanced to the note again and started laughing softly.

_I will deal with that guy later, I need to rest now, before Lucy gets worried again._

She thought, smiling down at the note, it wasn't that bad he had finished it for her, still, the girl now had like the feeling she owed him twice. The scarlet head took a deep breath while taking all her belongings and returned to her dorm.

…

Jellal entered his dorm only to find naked Gray playing with a noisy Natsu.

Gray glanced over his shoulder after he heard the door closing and asked the blue haired boy. "Hey, why did you take so long?"

Natsu who was still playing, suddenly jumped and gushed: "Ah, take that Ice princess, I killed you!"

"Oi that's not fair fire brain, I wasn't even looking." Gray rebuked, annoyed.

"That is your problem!" The pink haired insinuated.

"Just stop shouting!" Jellal interrupted. "If you wanna fight, go fight at another dorm."

"Ah, sorry about that Jellal. This idiot is too loud." Gray sneered, pointing with his hand at Natsu.

"Uh, what did you say, pervert? What about you put some clothes on?" Natsu retorted, crossing his arms.

Jellal face palmed, they were still at it, he just left to his room and tried getting some sleep, but before he could, his phone started ringing.

_It's Ultear_… He noticed, glancing to his phone.

"Hello, Ultear? What's up?" He asked as soon as he replied the call.

"_Jellal, sorry to call you at this hour... I just wanted to ask you something." A bit of insecure on her voice. "How's Erza going? I tried to call her and Lucy but none replied to me."_ Ultear asked suddenly, a little bit of annoyance and worry on her voice.

"Why do you ask _me_?!" He replied unsure -_ how did she even know she was sick?_

He could hear Ultear giggling, maybe mocking him. _"I called Erza earlier to ask her if she got the papers I gave you, Lucy was the one that replied and she told me everything. But when we ended our call Erza was still sleeping with a fever, so I wanted to ask if you know something more."_

_Tsk, he should've known the blonde girl would say something to someone, but why Ultear of all people?_

"Oh… yeah I carried her to her dorm after going to the office…" He heard Ultear chuckle and sighed, she was definitely teasing him… "Last time I saw her she still had a fever. That was… 15 min ago I think. But she seemed better, don't worry. Now go to sleep." He explained, he thought about not hiding his earlier encounter with the scarlet haired girl because if Ultear found out later she could overthink and assume he was afraid telling her, or something worse.

"_I'm happy she is feeling better." _He could heard her sighing, probably feeling relieved with the news._ "Oh... and thank you for bringing her to her dorm, you are so sweet."_ Ultear teased. She knew Jellal wasn't the type to help others unless he had an interest about them, either being friendship or just common interest for something else. She wondered if something happened before.

"Is that all? I'm going to hung up." Jellal muttered, a vein popping out in his forehead.

_"By the way, what do you mean 15min ago? What were you two d…"_

Before Ultear could finish her 'mocking', he hung up the phone and went to take a shower, somehow he didn't want to sleep anymore.

While taking it, he thought about how Ultear would probably pester him all day tomorrow, maybe Meredy too. But Jellal knew that was their annoying way of showing their interest on the matter... wanting to know what he thinks about the mighty scarlet haired girl, he knew Ultear wasn't as dumb as to think he would help someone only because he or she had a fever.

"It's only because she is an idiot, yes… I helped her because she is an idiot!" He murmured, trying to convince and assure himself that was the reason.

He heard his phone ringing again after his shower was done and checked his phone once again, identifying the caller… _his father_.

He sighed annoyed, he was going to answer and tell him he got nothing yet for his case, _for the thousand time_.

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**AN:** hahahaha Natsu and Gray being at it again, I miss these two idiots :D

I hope you like this chapter and leave a review if you want :)


	8. Friendship

_**...**_

_**Chapter 8 is out, I hope you enjoy.**_

_**Disclaimer: ****Fairy tail belongs to Hiro senpai, if it belonged to me, Jerza would def have more moments together!**_

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**Chapter 8: Friendship**

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Two days passed and Erza woke up feeling just fine and was now taking breakfast with Lucy.

"Are you sure you can go to school today? I mean, you did have a high fever not long ago." Lucy stated, worried about her friend.

"I'm fine, I promise." Erza assured. "Besides, today we have a Math test, exams are finally here so I can't really skip school you know."

Lucy yawned tired, she didn't know if she was ready to take this exam and thought that only Erza and 2 or 3 more people would be able to have a good grade on this one, she was better at Astronomy,but yes… they didn't have it anymore as a subject, _how lame_.

"Tomorrow we have Science… and in two days we will have English and Physics on the same day. Leaving us with Geometry in four days." Erza mumbled to herself.

"Wait, we have two tests on the same day? That should totally be illegal!" Lucy exclaimed, feeling betrayed by the world for some reason.

Erza was snapped out of her thoughts and chuckled at her friend, the read head put an arm around her funny friend saying. "C'mon, don't be insecure, you are pretty good at English and I can help you with Physics, even though you are not that bad at it either." She winked at her friend, pulling her out of their dorm.

Lucy grinned at her friend and happily followed her to school, feeling more confident now.

…

As soon as they got there, they could see people gathered around something, or someone, at the entrance of their school.

"Erza, do you hear that? It seems like someone is fighting someone for me." Lucy frowned as they approached, they could hear everyone murmuring but couldn't make out what they were saying, even though they didn't need to, it wasn't the first time this happened after all.

Lucy glanced over Erza and saw her frowning and fastening the pace.

"Erza, what are you going to do now?" The blonde girl was trying to keep the pace, but was hesitant to decide if to follow her or not. She knew Erza could deal with whatever that was.

Erza was passing through the crowed people and could hear someone's voice clearer as she approached.

"What did you say?"

The student council president recognized this voice, it was Natsu. The red haired girl then heard a sound like someone punching someone and finally passed through the curious students, spotting the scene occuring in front of her school.

Natsu was on the left side, with Gray just behind with his arms crossed. At the right side was a Blond spiky haired guy, she knew this guy, it was Sting from Sabertooth High school, he was on the ground after being punched by what seemed, Natsu. Beside Sting was Rogue, a black haired guy with red eyes that was always with Sting, his hair was mostly brushed to the right side, covering his right eye.

Before Rogue could launch at Natsu, Erza stepped in the middle of the two groups and shouted. "What's going on here?"

Sting got up on his feet, blood slowly going down the right side of his mouth. "If it isn't Tittania…" He declared. "I didn't know you had such delinquent friends."

"Shut up." Natsu muttered.

Erza frowned, she didn't know what happened but it was rare for her to see Natsu so angry.

The girl could see the four of them had some bruises here and there, insinuating they all fought earlier.

"What are you doing at the entrance of our school?" Erza asked, crossing her arms, now turning to face Sting and Rogue.

"We were just passing by... or is this street named Fairy Tail now?" Sting poisoned.

"Your friend saw us and suddenly started hissing at us." This time, Rogue was the one doing the explanation, his face calm. "We couldn't leave him and do nothing, then when we all got into an argument. He mustn't like to hear the truth… I see violence is the way your school show its resolve, like always." He spat.

Erza's eyes blazed with annoyance, her fists clenched and she looked at Natsu asking for an explanation on why did they fight people from another school, creating an already hard situation for them. She could see Lucy was now there as well, behind Natsu and Gray, with some other students. Ultear and Jellal were also there, as well as lots of others surounding them and just staring, waiting for whatever they were waiting for.

Natsu flinched at Erza's fiery stare but nonetheless backed up, he tried explaining to Erza as fast and firm as he could, without getting much information out, since Lucy was there too. He recalled what happened on his head before talking to his red haired friend.

"_Oi, Rogue look who it is, Fairy Natsu and his gay friend." Sting smirked when he spotted Natsu and Gray about to go inside their school._

"_You want to tell me something princess? Or do you want a kiss, perhaps?" Gray hissed, turning with Natsu to face the two other._

_Sting frowned, his eyes showing nothing but hatred at what Gray implied, he then took some steps forward, getting now only 1 meter of distance from them and muttered. "You are disgusting."_

"_Gray, let's not waste our time with this guys, remember we are not supposed to fight." Natsu tried to calm down, pulling Gray with him._

_Gray's eye brow quirked up at this, confused at his sudden action. - Natsu avoiding fighting? That was new. -_

"_Yes, go inside and take some clothes for your friend to wear. Or maybe that's just how this school works? Even that blonde haired girl friend of yours is always wearing so little, maybe one day we should test if she really deserves to dress like that." Sting continued, provoking them. He knew pretty well what he just insinuated, but that was exactly what he wanted._

_Suddenly Natsu glared at him and punched him hard, getting blood out from his mouth. Rogue tried to punch Natsu for what he did but Gray got ahead of him and punched him instead, on his stomach._

_The group of four people were suddenly fighting and people started to gather around them. Natsu and Gray sensing this wasn't good for them, started to calm down and continued by just speaking instead, but when Sting said something awful again, Natsu punched him again, at the same exact spot as his first punch._

Natsu shook his head, he couldn't possibly tell Erza exactly what happened, not with everyone here to hear, so he just tried the best he could. "They started it." He stated. Yes, that was the best he could.

Erza stared into Natsu's eyes, thinking that this stupid guy had to know that _that_ wasn't really an explanation, she discarded her feeling of punching him right now and thought that this wasn't like him at all so she would try to talk to him about it, later. The red haired girl glanced over Sting and Rogue and meditated on what to do. It was hard to think when she herself didn't even know what happened. Besides, the best thing to do was to not provoke them more or they would create a commotion at their school, giving Fairy High a bad reputation and creating maybe a School wars, even though they already kind of had both.

"Not even an explanation you have uh? Because you know you did wrong." Sting insinuated. "I think we are done here then, I won't say anything about this so don't worry, just punish them as they deserve." Sting winked at Erza before starting to leave with Rogue.

Erza glanced back at Natsu, his head was lowered and his fists were clenched, she could feel he was still angry, and not because of the punishment comment, but because of what happened before between them, if he wasn't saying anything, was most likely for her sake.

"Wait." Erza muttered, getting all the attention on her.

Sting and Rogue paused on their tracks and glanced over the scarlet head, waiting for what she could possibly want from them, they were probably expecting an apology.

"Who said I was going to punish them?" Erza snapped, clenching her fists. She stared at the two Sabertooth students with her known fiery eyes.

Erza knew she should've just ignore them and do as they said so they wouldn't have any trouble but, she couldn't just ignore Natsu's feelings. The girl knew a good president would maybe just do what they supposed to and that what she was doing right now was stupid, but…

Sting and Rogue looked at her confused, asking for more explanation.

"Natsu can be very irresponsible and impulsive… but he isn't a liar." She stated, angry. "If he says you started it, then I believe in him."

Natsu raised his head, his eyes wide… "I won't ask you what you did to deserve your beating because I know you will come up with more lies. What I want to do is… warn you."

Sting and Rogue couldn't believe what they were hearing, Sting opened his mouth to say something but Erza just continued from where she paused.

"If you two come here to hurt one of my friends again, or any student... I will be the one to punch you!" She exclaimed calmly but surely.

Sting could feel her fiery calm eyes on him and his friend, he wanted to say something, anything, but couldn't. He didn't dare to… Her eyes were intimidating.

"You… This won't end like this." Rogue said, unsure. Sting could see he was also intimidated just like him, and hell he didn't blame him.

They both walked away quickly and Erza sighed in relief, not really regretting what she did but afraid that if they said something more she could actually punch them right there.

Fairy High was known to get into fights with other schools, true… But Erza was cautious everytime they did, and more with certain schools like Sabertooth. They had one troublemaker hell of a council president there, her name was Minerva and she knew that girl didn't play clean.

"Erza, are you sure about this?" Gray asked, unsure.

"Nope, but what's done is done." She answered, shacking her head.

"I love you ERZAAA!" Natsu shouted, trying to hug Erza, only to get punched by an embarrassed red haired girl. "Shut up. Let's go, we have a test." She said, walking away, Natsu happily following with Gray and Lucy just behind.

Everyone was walking inside the school, going to their respective classes.

Jellal and Ultear were the only ones left, they were waiting for a certain pink haired girl to arrive when all that occurred.

"So… who were those guys?" Jellal asked out of boredom as usual, he was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed.

"The guys from the other school? The blond one is Sting and the black haired one is Rogue. They are both from Sabertooth High School. If you ask me why they were here I would say they like trouble. They always tend to come by to 'talk' to Natsu and Gajeel, another student from class A." Ultear explained the best she could. "I think they just don't get along with each other."

"I see… only because of that uh..." He said, more like to himself. He could feel this wouldn't end here, not only because that guy said it.

And now not only Natsu or Gajeel were involved, they all were.

"It's going to be okay, this is always happening." Ultear reassured.

Jellal raised an eyebrow at her comment. "What do you mean this is always happening?"

Ultear giggled with an evil grin on her face, recalling all the times they were in a conflict with another school. "Fairy High is famous for that, we always get into fights with another schools, well… I shouldn't say 'we'.. It's always involving Erza, Natsu, Gray and Lucy somehow… more than others." She affirmed smirking. "At the competitions every year it's really hard because we have so many enemies." She laughed, _how is this funny? _"But we also have some neutral or friendly schools, like 'Blue Pegasus' or 'Lamia Scale'."

Jellal sighed, he somehow wasn't really looking foward to these club tournaments, which was in a month, he was happy he didn't get into any club. "I'm happy I didn't get into any club." He jblurted out his thoughts.

"I really wanted to get into Jujutsu and help Erza a little but, I'm so busy with all the council activities." Ultear mumbled.

"Isn't the president also busy with it? Why on earth did she get into a club?" The blue haired boy asked, curious.

"That girl is not from the same world as the rest of us." She simply replied. "She isn't even into only one club, she also is at kendo club." She added.

Jellal sweat dropped at this. _She is even more stupid than I thought, now I understand why she's never around, plus why she gets sick._

Ultear could see Jellal's unbelief expression, she didn't blame him, it was hard to believe, or more like hard to accept.

"So…" The black haired girl changed the subject, recalling something. "Why were you smiling earlier like a proud moma?" She smirked, recalling how she spotted him smiling over what Erza was saying at Sting and Rogue.

Jellal flinched at her question, not really getting what she was saying, he didn't remember about him smiling.

He thought about what earlier could mean, the only possibility was when that confrontation happened, and he recalled how annoyed he was at Sting since Jellal and Ultear heard them from the very beginning.

_When Sting commented about Lucy, Jellal frowned, feeling annoyed at the comment. They probably didn't see them and were confident no one was listening._

_He saw how Natsu and Gray defended their friends and how they fought, he knew he or Ultear didn't have to do anything because they were obviously winning._

_As soon as Erza appeared later on, he could hear how those two were lying about what happened before and how the red haired girl was hesitant. He thought that when they were both leaving he would have to interfere because this wasn't right in his eyes, the president had to know what really happened, she couldn't really leave her friends feeling like that. But at the same time he assumed she as the president wouldn't do a thing because she didn't want to create an commotion to Fairy Tail, but even so.. He wanted for her to just…_

_He didn't have to continue his thinking though, Jellal saw how Erza snapped and defended Natsu, not only that she told them what they deserved without creating too much of a commotion._

_He smiled at her actions… - This girl really… - He didn't even know why he was so proud and satisfied with it, but he was._

He remembered, Jellal knew now what she was talking about.

Her smirk widened when she saw Jellal's cheeks going slightly red with embarrassment. "You know, I never saw you smiling like that before, I was really surprised."

"Shut up." He whispered, feeling nervous, he didn't think anyone would see it. "What's wrong with it? I just felt satisfied with the result of what happened." He tried explaining, without giving her too much to think about.

"Yes, ok, let's just say that was the reason." Ultear smiled knowing he wouldn't tell her what he really thinks anyway, but she was sure something was going on here. "Look, Meredy is finally coming." She added, as she spotted the girl running towards them.

Jellal felt his body relax at the sight of their friend, thanking Meredy in his head, he moved from the wall and they all started walking inside, after an apology from Meredy. "Sorry, my parents talk a lot." That was her excuse.

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**AN:** This was the end of chapter 8, I hope you enjoy and review if you like the story so far, or even if you don't :) Just leave your thinking below ;D


	9. Orders

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**I just quickly want to thank Lily-ana for the review, I really apreciate it, I'm happy you like it. I'm going to use Natsu and Gray as much as the opportunities let me, I love these two :) (I'm happy I know spanish hahaha xD Are you fine reading this in english? I hope you get it all, please enjoy the rest of the story.)**

**Disclaimer: Fairy tail belongs to Hiro Mashima! If it belonged to me Jerza would be already dating. *cough***

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**Chapter 9: Orders**

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Jellal's first class just ended and he was already annoyed, his father had sent a message telling to call him as soon as he could and he could only wait for another stressing talk.

The blue haired boy dialed his father's number and wait for him to answer, he had convinced Ultear and Meredy to just go home without him, he didn't want for them to see him annoyed and ask questions.

His father answered his call and all he could say first was. "Finally."

"Hi father." Jellal said, sarcastically. "What do you need?" He asked, going direct to the point.

"I need you to give me the personal information about all the students at that school, like I told you before." His father insinuated, stating that he was still waiting for Jellal to just somehow get that information out of the principal's.

"I know that, I'm on it, it's just it isn't easy to just do _that_." He tried getting some reasoning into his father.

"Pff, are you sure you are my son?" He mocked. _Nope, I'm not sure to be honest._ "Try harder or I will have to move." He warned his son.

Jellal knew if his father had to do something it wouldn't end well, not that he really cared but he preferred if he didn't. It would be more troublesome if he did.

"I will await for your call." His father finished the call not waiting for his son to say anything more, Jellal understood the next call he made was to tell his father he had the damn info.

He wanted to destroy the damn phone.

**…**

"So, how did it go?" Erza asked her blonde friend, after the test was over.

They were walking through the hall towards their lockers.

"It actually wasn't as bad as I thought… maybe that study time we spent at the council actually saved me." Lucy replied, her eyes smiling.

"See? Now how about we go home earlier to study for the Science exam we will have tomorrow?" Erza suggested.

"That's a good idea, but first I have to help Mirajane with her club, she asked me earlier. I'll meet you in 2h at the dorms." The blonde haired girl apologized and left after both saying their goodbyes.

Erza wandered to her locker, she was thinking about what to do for the next two hours, she didn't really need to study, she was only going to help Lucy and revise for tomorrow.

"Oh Erza, how did it go?" Erza looked at her right to see Riku briefly talking while he took some of his books out of his locker.

"I did fine, how about you? I know you also had a test today." She pointed out. "Also, I didn't see you at the council office these past days, are you okay?" Erza asked worried, he wasn't the type of guy to just discard studying and school work.

"Yes, sorry about that. My girlfriend wanted us to take some time together, she says I'm always stuck inside that room." He chuckled.

"Oh… so.. Y..You finally t…told her..?" Erza flustered, it was embarrassing for her to talk about those things, and to think Riku finally got a girlfriend himself, he was already going out with her from time to time but she never thought he would cross the line that fast.

Riku laughed at her reaction. "Yes, but don't say anything around the school, it's a secret after all." He winked.

Erza smiled and let out a breath, she was happy for him. She never really thinks about love, and now that this made her think about it, she actually asked herself what would be like to have someone you trust your life with... after all that happened to her, she didn't think she could ever do that.

"Oh, do you want to study later for tomorrow? You actually have the same teacher I did last year for Science, I could help you pointing out what is coming on his exam, mostly." Riku offered his help, even though he knew Erza was more than capable to take the test without it.

"That's nice of you, I mean, I would be fine but Lucy really needs help with the test tomorrow, I think you may as well come and help me with it." The scarlet haired girl accepted, explaining about Lucy. "We can all meet at the living room at the dorms, in two hours if you don't mind, Lucy is still busy right now."

Riku smiled softly a little surprised, his friend never really accepted any help, he wondered if something happened. "Okay, see ya there in two hours then." He left after, leaving her to walk once again to her locker.

Once she got there, she opened it and started searching for her Sciences book.

"Oh, if it isn't the mighty president." A certain blue haired boy said, making her glancing over to her left to see Jellal on his own locker, not that far from hers.

Erza wasn't sure what to say, so a simple "You." Got out from her mouth.

Jellal sighed, getting the book he wanted and closing his locker. He glanced over her, now facing her and asked. "Are you feeling better? Ultear was really worried about you."

He wasn't really forced to ask it for Ultear, he also was kind of worried this stupid girl would be overworking herself again, though, he didn't want or need for her to know that.

Erza didn't know Ultear even knew about it but then again, she did skip school for two days so she guessed all her friends should know by now.

"I'm fine now and I guess I will have to apologize to her later." She mumbled, thinking about it, she didn't only worry Lucy but probably all her small group of friends.

"Hm." He started turning around to leave.

"Wait!" Erza shouted in a hurry. He glanced over his shoulder at her and waited for what she would have to say.

"I… I want to thank you." She said, avoiding his eyes, it was embarrassed as it was already. "For helping me… in all those situations." She finished, not wanting to give it much time.

Jellal smirked turning his body fully towards her, now facing her correctly. "You mean when you were sick because you were an idiot, when you made your friend worry because of your stubborness or when I helped with your papers because you were late?" He started pointing out every occasion he helped her, amused.

Erza finally looked at him, he seemed to be enjoying his time teasing her. _Damn you._

"I.. will pay you back for sure." She said, feeling calmer now, but a little annoyed at the blue haired guy and his way of accepting her gratitude. "Even though that last one... you didn't really have to do it." She pointed out.

"I did these more out of boredom so don't worry. Also, you don't need to pay me for anything." Jellal declared, in a more serious tone now.

Jellal didn't want for Erza to think she had a debt with him, in fact, he never thought she was.

When she helped him out with his father he kind of felt he was in debt with her too, but even though he felt that way, he didn't help her getting to her dorm that day because of that, or neither did he help her with her friend because of that as well, even if he wanted to believe that way. But after all of these and today's incident that morning, he knew he was just helping her, or smiling at her, because he wanted or felt to, because this girl flustered him in a way he didn't like or understand but accepted none the less. Because she was interesting, and he loved teasing her even more now, trying to forget about the feelings and emotions he always got from this girl.

"Even if you say that, I do feel the need to." Erza said, in a similar tone as him.

Jellal shrugged at her comment, knowing she wouldn't change her ideas. "Do as you please, just don't overwork again, or I will have to carry you again to your room." He smirked.

Erza's cheeks turned red at his teasing, she knew he was playing with her but the thought of what happened made her blush and panic.

She was about to say something, probably yell at him even… When someone spoke behind her, making her jump and bringing her attention to the voice.

"Miss Scarlet, can you do me a favor?" She turned around to see one of her teachers, her name was Evergreen and she was the Science teacher. Evergreen is a woman with light brown long hair and dark brown eyes, she uses oval glasses and is mostly seeing wearing green clothes, right now she had one short green robe on.

"Oh, Y..Yes?" She asked confused, her blush had disappeared.

"There are some papers forgotten at Math's classroom, can you take them to the Staffroom? Principal's Macao forgot them there. I really need to leave for an important task, you would really help me if you accepted my request." She asked, politely. "Oh, it may be better if you take your friend with you." She added, talking about Jellal. "You will need his help." She assured, taking the leave after Erza's "Ok ma'am, no problem."

Erza sighed, she was already feeling in debt with the blue haired boy, may as well a teacher come and ask for him to help her, again.

**"**You don't need to come, she is probably exaggerating." Erza tried as she closed her locker.

Jellal frowned, he knew she would say something like that, her stubbornness was incredible even for him. He simply said nothing and started walking towards the classroom.

He heard hesitant steps following behind after a few seconds, he smirked, Jellal was satisfied knowing she wouldn't try making him stop because she probably understood she couldn't. He wouldn't miss this chance to actually go to the staffroom as an order and not as a thief.

When they got to the classroom, they spotted two piles of papers at one of the tables. Erza was relieved to actually have the blue haired boy with her, she couldn't possibly take all that at once.

Jellal took one of the piles and waited for Erza to do the same, he was about to scold her for not wanting his help but decided otherwise, he didn't want to do anything at risk, his goal was to get to the staffroom after all.

As Erza just started to take the pile of papers on her hands, they heard a click. Erza frowned and looked at the door, placing the pile at the table again, she took slowly steps to the door and tried to open it, just to fail as it was locked from outside. _I knew it._

"Are we locked inside?" Jellal asked, confused, he didn't know what could've happen, he was pretty sure any of the teachers or personnel of this school locked the classroom's so early.

"Don't worry, this always happens." She revealed.

Jellal frowned at her statement, he never heard from anyone that he or she got locked at this school, was this only happening with her? If that was the case, she was being targeted. Then again, being the president and being hated by lots of students made that a little of a normal occasion. Even though, he couldn't help but sigh, he was sure this girl didn't even know she was the only one getting targeted.

Erza kicked down the door calmly, making it to open but breaking it in the process. Jellal's shocked face was seen, he sweat dropped at her sudden action.

"W…Why did you do that for?" He questioned the girl, confused.

"What do you mean? Of course it was so we could get out!?" She said naturally, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"We could've just called someone with our phones without breaking anything." He couldn't believe this girl, she was just as, if not more, oblivious as Natsu.

Whoever or whatever was targeting her, he was sure she wouldn't have any problems with it.

Erza shrugged at his comment and left the room after taking the papers, mumbling about how she would have to report about it just after this little task.

As soon as they get to the staffroom, Jellal quickly thought about a plan to get rid of the president girl to take his info out of principal's computer. He was happy he was at the right place and moment when Evergreen asked Erza to do this, they passed some of the teachers on their way to the staffroom, and they were all out now so no one was at the staffroom but the two of them, and if someone saw him inside he had actually an excuse, it was perfect… he just needed to get Erza out first, without him.

Erza caugh a glimpse of a teacher passing by at the door, she needed to talk to him about what happened earlier. She was just about to tell Jellal to hurry when she heard a sound coming from behind her, she jumped at the sound and turned around to see what happened.

Jellal had tripped and all the papers he was holding were spread around. He had thought about a plan, and he decided this was the best idea, he wasn't really good at lying but as soon as he saw Erza wasn't looking he made it seem as if he tripped over something and fell, the idea was to gather some time.

He was going to tell her to go ahead without him so she could get to the teacher before he left the building, but he didn't have the chance as she hurried beside him worried.

"Are you okay?" She asked, genuine concern on her face.

Erza had kneeled down beside him, inspecting his face and body as to see if he didn't get hurt. Jellal had a loss of words as the red head's face was near to his, her eyes going all over his face. He blushed slightly, only then shaking his head hard and getting up so she couldn't see the blush. He nervously put his right hand on his face looking somewhere else but her. He didn't know why he had gotten so nervous all of a sudden, his heart beat increased as he saw those eyes staring at him like that.

"I'm fine." Jellal assured, trying to sound calm. "I didn't hit anything."

"O..Oh." Erza didn't think he was okay though, she stared at him with doubtful eyes.

Jellal started to grab the papers on the ground, distracting himself of any thoughts, he had to concentrate on his plan.

He saw Erza helping him getting the papers and quickly stopped her. "You should go, I can get them by myself, just go talk to the teacher before he leaves."

Erza's eyes narrowed, she really wanted to help him, and she thought he was acting really weird, but he was right, she had to hurry and go talk to the teacher they saw earlier.

"I… sorry, I will accept that, I really need to hurry." She said, getting up. "You sure you are fine?"

He just "Hm." Briefly, not looking at her.

"Okay then, I'll be going then... thank you for the help by the way." Erza left quickly after she thanked him, wanting to warn the teacher about the door so they wouldn't be surprised about it tomorrow morning, also, she had something else to tell him about the student council.

Jellal was left alone at the staffroom, as soon as he saw the red haired girl leave he sighed in relief, running one of his hands through his hair.

After calming himself down he gathered all the papers again and quickly proceeded to get the info he needed. He searched through the principal's computer, glad it was only in sleep mode, he tried to get all the students info but all he could find was all the names with pictures of the students at that school so he printed them while searching for some more info, finding none. Some of the folders had a password restriction so he couldn't really get any more than the names.

"Well, better than nothing I guess." He whispered to himself. When he was done he put them inside his school bag and left quietly.

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	10. Secrets and Plans

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**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima!**

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**Chapter 10: Secrets and plans**

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As soon as Jellal left school, his father was waiting - with one of his bodyguards - for him, patiently.

Jellal took wary steps towards the two people and carefully handed the papers he printed without as much as greeting his father, but before he could explain himself his father warned him. "Not here, let's go!"

The blue head boy frowned, not really wanting to go with him but rather go to his dorm and rest, though... he followed his father anyway, reluctantly.

Once they got inside his father's office, after 30min of driving, his father examined the papers while finally talking to his son, explaining. "Once I identify the girl, I want you to get closer to her."

"I want you to get some info on where her father could be staying."

Jellal frowned, he thought he was thinking about doing something worse to the girl when he first told him to find her, now he just wanted for him to get close and get some information out of her? What was he thinking?

"You know, I thought about killing her first." He said bluntly, like reading his thoughts. "But that would be a stupid move to take. If I killed her, that man would never appear again."

Jellal only wanted for his father to tell him he could leave at first, but he was kind of curious now and didn't dare to interrupt him, he wanted for him to just keep explaining things, so he could be less confused by the end of it.

"What I want is to kill that man, not his daughter, so you don't have to worry even if you know her." He finished, while still searching through the list of students, looking for a certain girl.

_Now I know where this is going._ The blue haired boy realized. He now understood his father's motives, he was manipulating him.

He made him think he wouldn't harm the girl so Jellal wouldn't have any trouble getting close to her and then feeling bad to actually using her. And more, he was being careful as if the girl was already a friend of his and he ended up betraying his own father at the end because of that reason.

Jellal smirked angrily, he actually could see now how far he got in his life and why.

If he wasn't used to live with him and knowing him, he would probably also fall for his traps and manipulating acts.

But he didn't really cared. Jellal knew the said girl wouldn't be any of his mates or any person he knew. Ultear... it was already proven to not be her and the others didn't fit the profile.

He also knew he wouldn't harm the girl even though he was manipulating him, he knew his father really needed the info of the girl's father' whereabouts, but after he got the info, of course he would do something to her, he wasn't that stupid to believe otherwise.

Jellal waited patiently as his father searched for the girl to announce it to him, he suddenly saw his father frown and smirk.

"Erza Scarlet." His father muttered, still looking at the list.

Jellal didn't try to hide his confusion, that couldn't be the girl he was searching for, his muscles tensed.

"That was the girl that scolded me the other day." He added, kind of amused.

Jellal's tense muscles relaxed, for a second he was mistakenly confused and somehow scared.

"I won't forget this name." He said, keeping on his search from before.

The blue head boy frowned slightly at his mention, he hoped he wouldn't do anything to the president because of him. Even though he knew he would only be focused on this matter for now, so he just really wished he just forgot about it while focusing on this.

Suddenly his father groaned, snapping Jellal out of his thoughts.

"What's wrong?" The boy asked.

"Are you sure you got all the students list name?" He questioned, a little angry.

"Yes, I'm sure, I checked twice at the principal's computer." Jellal answered, confused.

He had tell his father he only had gotten the names of the students when they were driving here, much to his father's dismay, but he declared it would be enough.

"That is not possible." His father insisted. "Why is there no one with the Belserion surname on it?"

"Belserion?" Jellal repeated. _That name… where did I heard it before? _He tried to remember but nothing came to his mind, maybe it was a lost memory of his childhood, but then again, if that was the case, he wouldn't remember about it. His memories were a mess with all the beating he got as a kid.

Now that he reflected about it, at the present, he never heard any Belserion at his school, not that he was paying attention to everyone's name anyway.

"So, the girl you are looking for, is she really at my school? Maybe you got it wrong." His son said, trying to think about all the options.

"No, it has to be this school." His father stated.

Feeling his son's confused look he sighed and explained, annoyed. "You don't have to know such details, but I can tell you at least about this anyway."

"Do you know that letter you gave to me a few days ago? That man… he is not sending the letters by normal mail." He started. "You know this at least because there wasn't such thing as names or address. Someone is bringing the letters to his daughter. Someone or himself, which I doubt it. And I also doubt his daughter knows who it is anyway."

"But, he didn't always send her letters like that." Jellal frowned hearing this, he had a feeling he knew where this was going. "The first letter he sent he actually sent it by normal means, which he regretted it later. Are you following?" His father asked, smirking. Testing if Jellal was capable to get it by now.

"So, are you telling me that you actually got his first letter instead by whatever means you used, then tried to reach him by the address he left behind? What happened?" He was curious enough, and that didn't explain how he knew about the school.

"Yes, well done getting that much." He grinned evily. "I did send people to that address, you know I didn't actually think he was that dumb to let me an easy way out, so I actually was careful to send people first in case it was a trap." His father groaned at the thought,_ seems like things didn't go the way he wanted to._

"It actually wasn't... and my people couldn't catch him, letting him escape." He said furious, as if it had happen recently. "As you can understand, that man, didn't do the same mistake again, he never sent a single letter again, or so I thought, it seems he was doing it in a safer way."

Jellal was still confused but he was relieved his father was telling him all this, he didn't want to say anything that would stop his father from shouting his thoughts, he knew he was doing it out of annoyance at the memory, so he was going to benefit from it to hear it all and gather as much info as he could.

"I also investigated the address where he was sending them to, it was empty… his daughter wasn't there." His father was still annoyed but was calming down as he finished his explanation. "But nothing was still lost, the first letter he sent her stated she definitely was at Fairy Tail High School."

His son sighed, now that he listened to everything he had to say, he was disappointed his father didn't tell him anything about why he was so angry at that man, but it did explained at least why he knew about the school, also now that he thought about it, the letter he found was right at the school grounds, that should be enough proof.

_Something is missing, something... is wrong, why isn't her at the list then?_

Jellal tried to ponder about all the options and possibilities _that_ could be a reason.

_1:This was all a trap by her father and she wasn't actually at the school. 20% possibility_

He didn't think this was it but that was still an option, even though very low.

_2:She was actually at school but her folder was a restrict one. 30% possibility_

This seemed more legit than the first one simply because he couldn't find many information about the students, bringing the possibility that she could've asked for it or being at any special case, but this one only bring about 30% of chances since it was still likely it wouldn't happen, mostly because his daughter seemed to not be aware of the situation with his father.

_3:She was actually at school but changed her name/identity. 50%_

This was the most legit of the three, it was also the most simple and logical for him… she could've changed her name simply because she hated her father that much or her father could've changed it for her as a precaution, that simple and easy.

After thinking about it, Jellal wondered if he should tell his father his thoughts.

He meditated for a moment and decided to do so, not having anything to lose, it's not like he knew the girl anyway, or even if he did, this wouldn't change anything much, his father already knew she was at that school for sure, or almost sure.

After saying his thoughts to his father, he could see his father smirk and proud eyes, which only disgusted Jellal, he didn't want for him to be proud at him, simply wanted this to be all over fast.

"The changing name idea did cross my mind before, I discarded it as an option after her father abandoned her and left her with nothing. But, that could be an option now seeing it like that. Either way, now I have to find another way to find her rather than by her name it seems." He grimly said, looking at Jellal.

"You must continue acquiring information about the student girls, try finding out who the letter belonged to, that seems the best way." He ordered, again.

Jellal sighed, he already had thought about it since the day he found it, the best way and easiest way could be asking everyone who the letter belonged to, the problem was... asking everyone about it, he couldn't just do it like that. People would think he would've gone mad, it would also be suspicious now that they let all this time pass since he found it, he couldn't just appear with the letter after all this time.

"Take the break campus as the opportunity." His father advised him.

"I'll do my best." He said lazily. Even though asking everyone now, who the letter was to, seemed stupid… he knew he could at least try to figure out without asking for it directly.

He left his father's apartment with one of his bodyguards driving him back to the dorms.

He was lost in thought all the way, he didn't even realized when he got there, until the driver told him so.

Jellal closed the door to his room and took a quick shower before getting to bed, tired. He would wait for campus break to try getting information out, he would just have to ask Ultear or her friends about people's parents life, or black haired girls parent's life, to be precise. He at least knew that girl's father abandoned her and was like a fugitive to his father, and that her name supposed to be Belserion… that had to lead him somewhere.

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End of chapter 10, I know there is lots of information to get inside your heads xD I will finish it here and next chapter will start the campus. (like stated before this is organised by student council as a kind of reward and rest for the tests, it's also during the break after the first term, which means first terms will end and first break it will be at campus, for their 2 week break, though that would be explained next chapter too so don't worry.)

I hope you are enjoying the story and mistery, leave a review about your thoughts below, I always apreciate them :)


	11. Challenged

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail characters are own by Hiro Mashima!**

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**Chapter 11: Challenged**

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Erza was humming happily while cleaning the rest of her dorm with Lucy, both had finished all the tests for the first term and were now officially at break for 2 weeks.

For those two weeks, a campus break was organized by the school, mostly by the student council, for a break to students after the tests. Even though the student council did organize it, school decided to point out some of the teachers to come with them, just in case some of the students decided to act agains the rules.

Erza at first didn't want to go, she wanted to stay at her dorm and plan things out for the club tournaments coming up slightly after the break, but Lucy had pestered her about going with her so Erza just gave up and accepted to go.

As soon as they both finished cleaning they started packing for the next day, tomorrow they were going campus with all their friends and other students.

"That's so much luggage!" Lucy exclaimed. "We are going to the camp, what are you going to do there exactly?"

She couldn't believe her friend, she always did this. Everytime they had extra activities from school or they needed to travel somewhere, her red head friend always just packed so much, it was kind of funny.

"I prefer to be prepared for whatever may come." She simply said, repeating the same thing she always said when Lucy questioned her actions.

Lucy simply shrugged at this and went to help her friend, she was so used to her weird persona by now she actually didn't even care anymore.

**…**

The next day came by as fast as it could. Erza slowly opened her eyes and turned off the alarm she set up the day before. It was only 5am but she had to still take a shower and wake up her best friend, they had to be at school by 7 to take the bus.

She glanced up at Lucy's bed and saw it was empty already, so she assumed she was already awake.

After her shower she went to the kitchen and saw Lucy happily eating her breakfast while talking on the phone. "Gray, is he awake by now?" She heard Lucy ask, she was sure she was talking about Natsu, the pink haired boy was alaways the last to get up, so Gray frequently had to go to his dorm to wake him up.

After a pause, what she assumed was Gray responding, she heard Lucy's final words before the call was over. "Okay, see ya there, thanks."

Lucy ended the call noticing her best friend looking at her curious, she smiled and explained. "Natsu as always."

"Should I go wake him up?" Erza suggested, an evil smile forming on her lips.

Lucy sweat dropped at this and chuckled. "N…No, I don't think you need to, it's okay."

If Erza was the one to wake up Natsu, she was sure Natsu would be half dead by the time he got to school.

**…**

Erza and Lucy arrived at school at 6.45am, they spotted an half sleeping Natsu and Gray already there as well as lots of others students. It was mostly sunny but not that hot, which was normal since it wasn't summer, or even near it, so they were lucky already as to actually be sunny and warm.

Erza was wearing dark blue shorts and a black sleeve, making her comfortable for the trip, while Lucy was wearing light blue skinny pants as she was kind of scared of the bugs, and also a pink top. They joined Natsu and Gray and started talking while waiting for the rest of students and teachers to show up.

At 7.05am, one of the teachers present asks for the students to low their voice and starts to talk.

"As you all know these two weeks you will be at the campus. I don't want any reclamations from the teachers regarding alcohol or comportment problems." He started, going directly to the point.

"You will ride the bus with your class, your representative teacher will be waiting inside the bus." He explained, while gesturing to some of the buses there. "I hope you have fun and please be careful."

Students started shouting happily while going to their own respectively buses. Erza's class was the one with a 2-A written above. As soon as Erza got inside the bus she greeted the teacher that was assigned to be responsible for their class while in campus, it was Gildarts, the gym teacher.

She seated with Lucy. Natsu and Gray were behind them, happily talking with each other. Erza didn't know what to expect of this campus, it was an idea she had only this year, so it was her first time coming to an actual 2 week school camp, with all the students none the less.

**…**

Once they got to the camp, they took all their bags and before they could go anywhere, their teacher stopped them outside the bus. He had to explain yet some rules and whatnot before they all leave to their respectively rooms, not that the students were leaving anyway, since it was their first time here they didn't know where or what to do.

"Okay, let me explain some of your confused glances." Gildarts pointed out. "First of all, you will share your stay with another class." Everyone in the class just glanced at each other with an unsure look on their faces, but didn't say anything. "We assigned one house to two classes, girls will be sleeping in one side and boys at another." He continued. "Each house has two big rooms, one big kitchen and one big salon. Each room has one toilet and a number of bunk beds... showers can be found outside the house… we have, not far from each house public showers you can use when you want."

"Wait." Natsu interrupted. "Why are we sharing the stay, wouldn't it have a lot of people inside a single room?" He questioned confused, blurting out everyone else's thoughts.

"You can see not everyone came to the campus, so the numbers are perfect to share a house, considering they don't have houses for every class." Gildarts simply explained.

Erza glanced around, she could see Gildarts was right about the student decreased number, their class had 18 students, fully, but right here she could see only around ten. For the girls it was only her, Lucy, Mira, Levy and Cana… Not that she was surprised, lots of students didn't like camp and others were simply busy with family plans to come, like Meredy who had to stay at home with her parents.

Lucy was also glancing around to see with whom she was going to share the room with…_ So we have 5 at least for our class_, she noted. Lucy was fine with sharing the house or even room with another class knowing Erza and Mira would be there.

"Anyway…" Gildarts continued, getting the attention of the two girls. "You have the map with you right? You shouldn't get much trouble finding what you need. If you want to see me just go to the office room marked in the map, got it? Now you can go… your assigned house is the red one on the plan." He finished, leaving.

Erza and the others walked towards the red house not that far from where they were, she supposed every bus stopped near their assigned houses. Once they got there, they could see some of the other students from the other class already there.

"Oh, so you are the other class that will stay with us?" A familiar black haired girl shouted, coming from the right where you could see two couches and one table placed near the right wall of the big living room.

Erza saw how Ultear came joining them happily. "I'm happy it's you." She said, hugging Erza and the other girls.

"Oh, Ultear." Erza said surprised, but happy she would stay with them, at least it was someone they actually knew.

She noticed how Gajeel from her class and another guy from Ultear's class were bickering at each other and frowned, before going to hit them and shout to them to stop.

Gajeel was a tall muscular boy with spiky black hair, usually kept slicked back. He was wearing a bandana on his forehead, white pants and a black shirt… His eyes were red which caused some people to actually be scared of him, but Erza knew he was actually kind, especially to Levy, one of their classmates.

"It was Cobra who started it." Gajeel pointed to him, annoyed.

The boy Gajeel was 'fighting' with, was Erik, or most know as Cobra… A slim man with average height, dark tan skin and marron spiky hair upwards, with some of the hair covering his forehead.

Cobra was confused at the red head since they didn't know each other but decided to not say anything after another glare she threw to both of them, making them to just leave as fast as they could.

"I'm so glad we have Erza here, like that we won't have any problems regarding these idiots." Ultear was grinning evily.

Erza sighed, she really wanted a two week of rest though, not to be pointed out as the _controller of bad behavior_.

She decided to go to her shared room to unpack her stuff and then take a rest for the whole day, not inside the house of course, she knew she wouldn't have any peace inside, she had a brilliant idea after studying the map.

After the red head was done, she went outside, leaving all the girls to continue unpacking their stuff while talking and screaming about boys.

Before she left she glanced up to analise the situation, Ultear was teasing Lucy and Juvia, a blue haired girl from Ultear's class, about their 'Love rival' situation, whatever that was... while Levy, Mira, Kinana and Yukino were talking about Gajeel and Laxus, until they started talking about Cobra and a flustered Kinana was hidding her face from embarassement. On the other hand, Cana was drinking - what she wanted to assume was juice but was definitely alchool - by herself while unpacking.

Kinana and Yukino were both from 2-B class. Kinana was a petite girl with violet-colored short hair and green eyes, while Yukino had also short but light blue hair and brown eyes. Yukino was at Sabertooth High last year but this year she joined them and even though Erza didn't really know the reason why, she could just try and figure it was because of a certain group of students.

...

Erza walked slowly into the woods, knowing there was a spot just a few meters away, as indicated on their map, that she thought it would be peaceful since it was placed far from the entertainment camp activities area, or even their house.

When she arrived, she stretched out her body and took a deep breath, smiling at the Mother Nature. There was a small lake and a waterfall… a small cave was seen at the right and birds were singing around and Erza couldn't feel more at peace.

**…**

Lucy and the others had finished unpacking all their stuff and even decorated the room. They were all gathered on the living room with the boys, preparing to leave and explore the main activities grounds.

"Lucy, where's Erza?" Ultear asked the blonde head, after glancing around not seeing the president.

Lucy sighed and just shrugged at the black haired girl, not really knowing the answer herself. "She just said she was going out. She's probably just chilling somewhere."

"Oh, that's too bad. And Gajeel and Cobra are at it again." She pointed out just now noticing the two fighting again, annoyed.

"Well, just let them be." Jellal shrugged. "They will get tired, eventually."

"Yeah, let's just go and leave these idiots here." Shouted Natsu, excited.

"You are not the one to talk, number one idiot." Retorted Gray.

"What did you call me, pervert?" Natsu bickered, now facing the other boy.

They were now both fighting each other and Lucy couldn't help but face palm at them, half smiling at the two. She suddenly felt a wrath behind her, of what she assumed was Juvia with 'don't smile at my Gray.' stand, she sighed at the situation.

Ultear just chuckled and started to leave with everyone else, Lucy kind of pulling Gray and Natsu along with Levy's help… it was a sunny day, they had to enjoy.

The camp was big enough to make them get lost if they get too far away, luckily for them, they had a map to help them, but the map only covered what he must.

The camp was composed of houses separately, some of them were on the other side of the map, which Lucy couldn't possibly think about walking there any time in their two week rest, so she would just probably get stuck with her class and B class for the rest of the break.

The houses surrounded the center of the map that consisted of a place for everyone to play and relax. Lots of activities were shown and proposed to all the people there installed.

Lucy could spot a beach at the map, well it wasn't really a beach considering it wasn't really the ocean, but it was a big large lake that looked like an ocean… and people could also swim and play there, which was the reason Lucy was happily looking at their map, knowing that later on the day they decided to go there. But first, they would go to the center and check out all the activities they could do, of course that was an excuse for Natsu to buy every food he got to, not that she expected they had many here, but if that made him happy she wouldn't possibly crash his dreams appart.

The place was filled with students, not only from their school, hanging out and they could see some of them were already doing some of the activities they proposed. Lucy was shocked how it was bigger than she thought, but soon realized that she should've expected it since they spent like 30 minutes to get there.

Natsu was just screaming around, excited over everything he saw. Ultear and Jellal were just behind with Gray, whom was just snickering at Natsu.

They could see Ropes course not too far from them, as well as rock climbing, which had Gajeel and Cobra run there at the speed of light, shouting something between the lines "I will win this one." But what got Natsu shouting the most was the vending food tents they had, not many, but still got Natsu that fired up.

When Lucy was sighing at the sight, she dumped into someone and shocked at the impact she immediately started bowing in apology when she saw who it was.

"Well, how lucky of us." A slim girl with long black hair muttered.

Lucy knew this girl, it was Minerva, the student council president of Sabertooth High School. She had a kind of Eastern look, her long and straight hair reaching down to her back, was tied into a pair of bun shaped Dango loops at both sides of her head.

"If it isn't Minerva..." Ultear glowered, she just came stand beside Lucy with Jellal and Gray, Kinana was nervously hiding behind Cana.

Minerva raised her chin in disapproval of the Fairy High students. "Ultear." She spat.

"How come you are here?" Questioned Gray, disconcerted at her presence.

"Do you think your school is the only one coming here?" Minerva sneered. "In fact, our school knows this place it's been quite a few years now, but it's the first time I see you here." She insinuated.

"So we just had the bad luck of coming to _this one_ camp." Gray said, bluntly.

"Things are becoming interesting... this morning I saw your buses arrive, which gave me happiness." Minerva grinned, ignoring Gray.

They stared at each other confused and cautious of her real meaning behind this, they knew they weren't in good terms after what happened with Sting and Rogue.

"Oi, where's your doggy partners at?" Natsu demanded just returning from a food stand, feeling the urge to punch the girl but not doing so. Instead he was curious on why they were not with their gang leader.

Minerva smirked at his question, ignoring the _dog_ part. "They just wanted to walk around, explore the wilderness." She teased.

They frowned at this, but decided to ignore it as they didn't know what she meant by that, but didn't want for her to get ahead of them either.

"Now, now, let's stop this bickering." Gildarts commanded, as he appeared behind the group, taking a bite of his sandwich.

Minerva groaned with displeasure. The Fairy High students all started to leave quietly, they didn't really want to ignore the girl but also did not want to get more problems, with a teacher present nonetheless.

They didn't go that dar though before pausing at the girl's cold voice.

"What about a challenge?" She questioned, smirking.

Sure they couldn't fight, but a fair challenge between the groups wasn't illegal or didn't harm anyone. So they thought at least.

They all turned to face her once more, with Natsu clenching his fists and grinning.

"I'm all fired up now."

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**AN:** This is the end of ch11, things are def going down hahahaha that was the pourpose of the whole camp thing tbh. Have fun reading.


	12. Clash

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**Disclaimer: Hiro Mashima owns Fairy Tail and its characters.**

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**Chapter 12: Clash**

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Sting and Rogue were going along with Minerva's plan, they had followed Erza Scarlet all the way to the small waterfall scene and were now reflecting about their next move, they already planned everything out while the mighty red head was resting, reading a book against a tree… they were obviously carefully placing a fair distance to the red head girl so they wouldn't get caught.

They both knew what Minerva was doing at this moment, putting on the challenge act at the others students from Fairy High.

They glanced over the rock they were hiding to realize the red haired girl was finally getting up from her long rest. Orga, one of their classmates were already at place ready for his task.

Orga was a very massive and heavily muscular man, possessing an extremely well built torso and matching arms, he was perfect for the job Sting had him do.

The two boys weren't stupid enough to go against Erza with bare hands and on their own, but with this plan, they were surely going to get their revenge… and then only Natsu and Gray were left on their list.

Erza was humming happily while she took a sip of water, she glanced over the small lake and waterfall and decided to go in the water and enjoy its coldness, but before she could even do as much as take her clothes off, she heard a noise coming from the small cave near the waterfall.

Erza frowned as she wasn't expecting it but she supposed it could be a small animal wandering around, though she decided it was better to go check it out just to be sure.

She stepped inside the small cave, glad she actually had the light from the entrance to guide her or else she wouldn't see a thing inside. As the girl didn't spot anything out of place even more deep inside, she narrowed her eyes confused, but immediately shrugged at it, not wanting to ruin her peace.

She noticed how there were signs of a small camp fire as she saw a pit dug on the ground and some old wood still laying together, she sighed realizing that probably she wasn't the only one coming to this peaceful place, though she couldn't blame those people, this was a perfect place to rest and even if it rained, there was still this not so big cave to shelter them.

When Erza was about to decide to leave the cave she heard soft steps behind making her to freeze. She slowly turned around to see who it was, her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Sting and Rogue standing right in front of her, the blond one with a smirk on his face.

"Why are you so eager to leave Titania?" The blond haired teased.

Erza's expression hardened, she was kind of surprised to see Sabertooth here out of all places, but she didn't want to show them that. "What are you two doing here?"

"We should be the ones asking you scum of Fairy High _that_, but…" He laughed so loud like he was the luckiest person in the world at this moment. "What could I ask for more, what an excellent opportunity."

"The humiliation you made us feel the other day… You shall as well feel it for yourself now." It was Rogue who muttered these words before Erza could say anything.

Orga, which was just outside waiting, came into the cave but did not budge further from the entrance.

"I see." Erza simply muttered, now understanding a little more of their plan.

Her first question as why they were here didn't actually matter right now, she knew they were going to attack her on three on one_, no… two on one…_ she realized. The man guarding the entrance had two goals, one was obviously for her to not try to escape. The second was, as he stand at the only narrow entrance of that cave, it made all the light almost vanish from inside, limiting her vision.

Erza was no foul, she knew perfectly well this strategy of them was the perfect way they had to actually have a chance to beat her. And although she knew this handicap was for both of them, she also was aware that Rogue was pretty good fighting in the dark which made her having a huge disadvantage.

The girl frowned, biting her bottom lip, she was angry. How could they do such thing as coming all this way out only to put such a cowardly act to beat her up? But Erza was more angry at herself, she didn't even had a clue she was being followed, not that it was really her fault, how could she know this problematic school was also going to come here of all places?

That's when something clicked in her head, as if she just realized something else.

"Where is Minerva?" She glowered. As a matter of fact, she knew Minerva would be the one seeking out to pick a fight with her personally, it was suspicious she sent her two companions to do the job.

"I don't think she need to come just for you." Sting snarled, an evil stare disappearing with a smirk forming on his lips, after that, he was gone.

Erza changed her stance to a defensive one, even though she couldn't see much, she still could make out their dark silhouettes at least. She rolled out of the way just in time to dodge Sting's punch to her guts, if she knew he would try to punch her she could easily just block his attack, but in the almost dark they were in, she couldn't make out every part of their body in time to perceive their attacks.

Erza tried to take the opportunity and used her left leg to reap Sting's right one, making him stumble.

_Like I thought, the darkness is also a handicap to him… the problem is…_

And she didn't have the time to process Rogue's next move as he swung his leg, his knee making contact with Erza's stomach, making her gasp with the contact. But Erza didn't let her opponent to attack again as she jumped back beside the fire hole she saw earlier, even though she couldn't see it now she knew perfectly where it was as some twigs were touching her right foot.

Sting who was now angrier than before muttered some words she couldn't hear, but it was Rogue who made a move first. He charged forward perfectly avoiding the hole on the ground, the only thing Erza had the time to do in such a small dark space was to defend the next attack aimed at her head, throwing her arms up in defense she successfully blocked Rogue's right foot and just as she heard his growl and Sting moving towards them she moved slightly to her right, making her positioned behind the fire hole. As she expected, Sting which came to attack her again blindly, tripped over some of the twigs and fell on the ground just beside where Erza was, his face smashing right on the ground. If the student council president of Fairy High wasn't in a difficult situation she probably would have laugh at that.

"This witch!" The blond teenager spat angrily, trying to get up, taking off all the earth he got on his face.

"Sting, stick with the plan!" Ordered the Black haired one. "Just let me handle it, you know what to do."

Erza had a bad feeling about all this, not that she could do something about the situation, other than defending herself. She greeted her teeth, trying to think of a strategy but she couldn't focus as the Black haired boy lunged at her for another attempt at knocking her out. This time he didn't intend to stop even for a second, he threw her one punch after another and Erza was doing her best to dodge or blocking all of them. The only reason she had such a hard situation was only because Rogue was able to see all her movements, while she wasn't good at fighting in the dark and trying not to lose focus of the other two while at it. Though, she was failing hard… she could only focus on the black haired guy in front of her, if not, she wouldn't be able to block his attacks.

Rogue was smirking while testing the girl's patient in front of him, he didn't want to get an actual hit, he was just distracting her. Fortunately for Erza she knew this all along so she was trying to think of a way to throw her opponent off his feet first. Just right after dodging another of Rogue's punch, she quickly threw some of the twigs with her left feet at his face. Rogue cursed as some of them scratched his cheeks and nose but instead of backing down he angrily grabbed Erza's left wrist with the intention of getting hold of the smart girl.

Erza smirked at his desperate action, her Jujutsu defense techniques running through her mind. She grabbed his right arm that was still holding her in place and was thinking about throwing him on the ground but Sting appeared at Rogue's right side. Even though Erza wasn't able to focus on all three of them, she knew the blond boy was waiting for a chance to get her, so she thought she was prepared for when the time arrived, she thought she would be able to feel his movements and counter attack them… but the next thing Erza felt was pain through her left upper arm, red liquid slowly making its way out. The black haired boy unleashed her at this and stepped back to rub his face, still cursing at Erza's early attack. She greeted her teeth swallowing the pain, she realized now that Sting had a little knife with him, he was laughing at Rogue's scratched face but deep inside he was more like laughing at her, probably.

_Cowards… _Erza thought to herself.

Erza was expecting Sting to attack her at some point, but she couldn't possibly know he held some kind of weapon, even though she cursed herself for thinking they could actually fight clean, as clean as this could be of course, two on one was already cheap anyway.

The red head tried to calm down and concentrate, she needed a way out of this situation right now. Rogue and Sting were ready to attack any minute now and it would be troublesome if she got any worse than this, for many reasons.

As if on cue, they heard a distant voice. "Oi, Erza do you hear me? Where you at?"

"Tchh" Sting suddenly happy face darkened at the voice.

"It's better if we leave for now." Orga was the one talking, his eyes facing outside. "Whoever is searching for her didn't see us yet, it would be bad to have a witness."

With that, he was the first one to leave, Rogue glared at Erza first and then also left, reluctantly.

"I hope you understand what happens when you all try to act all cool against our school." Sting muttered, walking away. Erza had the feeling the anger on his voice was more related to how his pride actually had to be damaged after all this. They getting humiliated at Fairy High first and then taking an unfair fight on act and still getting somehow hurt on a ridiculous way, had to make any man's pride to shatter. Leaving was the best option for them though, if Erza tries to say anything to the teachers it will be her word against theirs.

After the blond one took also a leave out of the cave, Erza's body relaxed, making her sighing in relief, whoever was that screamed earlier, deserved her most sincere gratitude.

"Erza!" The voice called again.

Erza could recognize it now that it was much clear, it was Riku's voice. She clenched her hand on her upper arm, where her wound was still opened and slowly got outside the cave blinking a few times to the sun's light.

"Erza!" Riku shouted again running to join the red haired wounded girl.

Erza saw him coming near and let a long breath out of her lungs, still, she found it bizarre the boy was here out of all places.

"Erza, are you alright?" Riku asked now that he was just in front of the girl. "What's with the blood?" He added when he noticed the red liquid going down her arm.

"Oh, don't worry this is nothing. What are you doing here Riku?"

"Nothing you say, was that Sabertooth's doing?" Riku watched how Erza was taken back by his conclusion, so he explained. "I followed Sting and Rogue here after what I heard."

He then recalled what happened before.

_Riku was happily walking through the woods, this was a shortcut he had taken to go to his girlfriend's class house. He heard voices to his right and wondered if someone was lost, it wasn't quite easy to take this way if you didn't know this place, Riku's family likes to camp on their holidays so it wasn't really weird for Riku to wander around. He paced towards the voices and when he recognized one of them to being Sting's, he hid behind a tree far enough to get to listen to their conversation and not be spotted on._

"_Are you sure Fairy High is here?" It was Rogue's cold voice._

"_I am, that's what Minerva told me." This time Sting's voice was heard. "She told us to intercept Erza while she was going to take care of the rest, and now that the stupid girl is all alone by herself we can actually do more than that."_

_Riku frowned not liking where this was going, he was not really good at combat like their president, but he had to do something._

"_Where is she then?" Rogue questioned._

"_We followed her before to a small lake on the woods, I left Orga there waiting, we just have to join him, do you want to come or not?" Sting was impatient but excited, he was ordered to actually do whatever he wanted to Erza and that's what he planned to._

"_I wouldn't lose this opportunity for nothing in the world." Rogue was smirking, not that Riku could see either way._

_The two boys walked away, being followed by Riku, taking in a safe distance._

"And that's how I know." Riku finished the explanation, now wrapping some cloth to Erza's wound. "Though, I lost them on the way here and I was desperately searching when I heard noises near the lake. I saw Orga at the cave's entrance and I hid again before he could see me. So I thought of calling your name expecting for them to go away, in fear they got discovered." He laughed, it was just as he planned, somehow.

Erza smiled at the boy, he wasn't really good at fighting but when it came to thinking he could make for the lack of abilities.

"Should we go to the infirmary? There is one near the center. Your wound is a little deeper than I thought, you should…"

"It's ok, I'm worried about the others, and Minerva did say she was going to take care of the rest right?" Erza interrupted. "I want to go check on them first since they went to the center anyway, I will go treat my wound just after I see they are all alright." She assured him, the infirmary was near the center either way.

Riku nodded and walked with her, accompanying her until they got to Class A and B' house again, she paused there to bandage her wound quickly cleaning out the blood and take a thin jacket to cover it so no one could see.

"Ok, I'm ready to go, you should go join your girlfriend now, I'm really sorry you're late because of all this." Erza apologized, bowing slightly.

"A..Ah it's ok, please don't be sorry because of something like that." He pleaded awkwardly. "I couldn't just leave you there now, could I?" The boy laughed to lighten the atmosphere. "Then, I'll go on my way now, be careful ok?"

The red head nodded and saw him leave in a different way herself did.

_I hope everyone's alright, why isn't Lucy getting my calls? _Erza wondered, she tried to message and call her with Riku's phone but with no luck, she only had her best friend's number in her head since Erza didn't possess a smartphone herself, so it was hard for her to contact anyone else.

_I'm really starting to think that buying a phone is really a necessity these past days._

_._

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**AN: **I just want to say to all Sting and Rogue fans, I do like them on the original series, but I thought here they would make good villains, please don't hate me xD (thus let's don't forget how they were when first introduced.)

;)


	13. Worry

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**Disclaimer: Even though sometimes I think otherwise, Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro senpai!**

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**Chapter 13: Worry**

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"So? What's this challenge about?" Natsu was all fired up.

Minerva raised her chin smirking at Natsu's stupidity, it was that easy to fool them with people like that. "A challenge between our school and yours. The rules are simple, we will take some of the activities here and compete."

"Taking an example…" Minerva then gestured to the 'rock climbing', where Gajeel and Cobra were already challenging each other, oblivious to everything else. "Let's say we take Rock climbing as a challenge, one of the members of our team will be against a member of yours and the first one to get up to the top is the winner, adding one point to the team." The confident girl explained. "We will have 5 challenges at total, an impair number for winning purposes, so you will need 3 points to win."

"So… How is this decided? Are you guys the ones that chose them?" Gray questioned, unsure of what the girl's objective was.

"No, all the activities will be written down on a paper and put inside a bag… your teacher will take 5 of them at random. I think that is fine with you guys right? You have the upper hand here, the ones who could possibly cheat on that would be you." She laughed, the smart girl knew they wouldn't cheat at all, they were too innocent to do so, but even if they did, it didn't matter which one they got as a challenge, they were used to do them every year and they were good at it by now, instead, it was Fairy High's first time and their ace was being beaten up at this very moment.

Gildarts sighed at this, he didn't want to get involved with students rivalry but as a gym teacher, he kind of found it interesting. "It's fine for me."

An evil smile could be seen on Minerva's lips. She saw how they were murmuring to each other to decide either to accept or not. "So? Do you accept the challenge or are you too afraid to do so?"

"We accept!" Natsu's eyes glinted.

"Oi Natsu…" Gray face palmed, but they all knew they couldn't stop him at times like these.

"Well, it shouldn't be all too bad to show them to have some respect." Ultear rebuked, adding fuel to Natsu's fire.

"So, when is this happening?" Jellal was the one to ask, not liking in any way how this was going, he was sure they were planning something else.

"The activities can be decided right now, we will start the challenges in 3 hours, time enough for everyone to rest and gather here." But Minerva was just being cautious so they wouldn't have the time to analyze the activities further down. "Also, the teams need to be decided now."

"I thought everyone could participate." Gray stated.

"They do, but only five of them, it would be a mess to have every student in here wouldn't it? Besides, since we don't know which activities are being chosen yet, it will be more challenging." Minerva laughed again, she was sure they would chose Erza as a team mate, after all it was their president and she was a big part of this confrontation, little they knew their president was certainly not in a state to do so right now.

_But once they choose the team it will be too late._

"Tsk." Gray growled, not liking the idea but accepting it, it sure would be less annoying to have less people to deal with.

"Before you chose, take in consideration you won't be able to switch a member until the end of the challenge." She declared, as if it wasn't obvious. "As for Sabertooth, I already have my team."

Minerva glanced at the teacher who was now taking notes of probably what was the activities to be chosen and stared back to Natsu and the others. "Our team will be me, Minerva Orland, Sting Eucliffe, Rogue Cheney, Orga Nanagear and Rufus Lore."

"Do you really have to say all the weird surnames?" Natsu tittered.

"So, who is going to participate?" Gray asked their group on a more serious tone. "I think we should put Erza on the team, so we may as well decide for four of us to join."

"I agree, but we will have to find Erza in three hours time." Ultear added.

"So… not to be a coward but, I don't really think I want to participate at those." Lucy decided after taking a look at 'Rock Climbing' or 'Scoop ropes'. "It can be dangerous if someone gets as excited as Natsu is right now." She pointed out.

"I want to do it." The pink haired boy gushed.

"I think you and Natsu should participate." Ultear advised, facing Gray. "Both of you are good at sports, besides, I don't think Natsu will accept a no as an answer."

"Yes, I'm in." Natsu jumped around happily. "I gotta go tell Gajeel about this."

Gray sighed as Natsu disappeared as fast as a lightning bolt… He stared at Minerva and just as he spotted her smirk still in place, he accepted the challenge. He surely was looking forward to get to beat some of these people, even if it wasn't directly fighting.

"What about the other two?" Jellal asked, as if everyone forgot it was supposed to be five, not three.

"Why don't you join in?" Gray proposed.

"I don't real…"

"Okay, so we need one more right?" Ultear interjected.

Jellal sighed annoyed, this girl was always trying to tease him somehow.

"Oi, guess what?" Shouted Natsu again, running towards them with Gajeel just behind. "Gajeel also wants to participate." The pink haired boy announced as he halted in front of Ultear.

_That was fast._ Gray observed, blinking.

"O..kay, I think we have all five participants now uh?" Ultear stepped forward, facing Minerva. "Our team will be composed of Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, Gajeel… What's your surname?" She asked suddenly glancing over the black haired boy.

Natsu laughed as an embarrassed Gajeel replied. "Redfox."

"Sorry." Ultear smirked. "Gajeel Redfox, Jellal Fernandes and Erza Scarlet… these five."

"Ok then, it's decided. How about the activities?" She glanced at their teacher again, to see if he was finished with it, her evil smirk still in place as she heard Erza's name.

"I already have all of the papers inside the bag, since your guys were so slow to decide." The teacher stated. "Shall I start?"

"Yes" Some of them replied.

Gildarts shoved one of his hands inside the bag, taking out the first little paper. Unfolding it, he announced the first challenge. "Rafting."

"Oh, there is also rafting here?" Lucy was amazed, she knew there was a river down below the map but never imagined for a second they actually did rafting there.

"There are a lot of activities that are held out of the center of the camp too." Minerva explained with a disapproving look at the blonde girl's lack of information.

"The next one is: Rock climbing." Gildarts announced the second one, ignoring their remarks.

Gajeel was screaming excited at the background.

The teacher held out a third paper. "Third one will be: Swimming Course... Ah, this one will be held at the beach." He declared lazily.

Lucy's eyes twinkled._ I can't believe we got a challenge at the beach, lucky me, I may as well tag along._

"Forth one: Headband blind tag team" Gildarts was almost finished, he quickly shoved his hand again to grab the last one.

"What's th…"

"I'll explain all those at the time they will be held." Gildarts interrupted a confused Natsu. "Last one will be: Climbing tree."

Natsu's eyes narrowed. "That sounds... lame"

Gray didn't want to agree with him but it did sound lame to him as well, _what challenging could be climbing a tree?_

"That's all, see you in three hours here, we will start with Rock Climbing." The teacher hurriedly said, just wanting to go eat and drink again. "I will provide you all with two four wheel cars so we can move faster between one challenge to another."

And with that, the teacher left as fast as the wind.

Minerva also left without a word, leaving Fairy High Class A students murmuring and screaming - if you count Natsu - at each other. Some of them were excited, some afraid and others just suspicious.

"Let's go eat for three hours!" Natsu proposed to Lucy and Gray.

"As hell I will!" Exclaimed Lucy not believing the boy's stomach' size.

"Well, eating doesn't seem a bad idea for me." Gray said, starting to walk towards a food tent, with a happy Natsu shouting "That's what I'm talking about." Just beside.

Lucy face palmed at both but decided to follow them, she was also kind of hungry now that she started smelling some of the food's good scent. Ultear, Jellal, Gajeel, Yukino and Levy followed just behind, all of them agreeing that eating was the best option for the time being.

"Wait." Lucy suddenly paused on her tracks after realizing something. "What about Erza? Shouldn't we go look for her?"

"You're right." Levy nodded.

"Why don't you just call her?" Jellal proposed, confused.

"She doesn't have a cellphone." Lucy replied, thinking how hopeless her friend was.

Jellal frowned but didn't say anything, he maybe was wondering if she broke her last one, not knowing she actually never had one.

"But, we don't even know where she is right?" Ultear recalled them. "It's better if we just go back to the house after eating something, I'm sure she will show up there later."

Everyone agreed since they didn't have a choice and proceeded to go lunch.

**…**

Erza had reached the center of the map, she was amazed with all the activities proposed and all the people around, definitely most of them being students but not only from Fairy High.

The president glanced around, trying to find any of her classmates but with all the people here it would be a little difficult. Her stomach growled and her head felt light all of a sudden.

_I hope I can find them faster, with all the blood I lost, I really should go rest. I can't worry them anymore._

She paused at a food tent, not resisting in buying some marshmallows, they were easy to eat and they would help her stay conscious with all the sugar they provided.

Erza noticed Cobra at Rock climbing and smiled, knowing the others should be near, or she hoped so at least. She tried to get on a rock to see beyond everyone's head. After a few seconds, she spotted a known pink hair near one of the food tents, which could only be Natsu. The red head jumped down the rock and hurried to join the others before they moved, she winced as a girl ran into her, brushing on her wound slightly. The girl apologized and ran again, making Erza sigh, she hoped her wound wouldn't open as much as before, if she wasn't careful enough it could happen though. She glanced down staring at her poor marshmallows on the ground.

_So much as to waste them... well it can't be helped. _She dumped them at the nearest trash can and hurried to the others.

As the red haired girl arrived to the tent, she could see Natsu biting and chewing an already small hotdog at his hands, she noticed Gray just beside him, talking with Lucy. Levy and Ultear were not far from them happily eating, with a reluctant Jellal and Gajeel.

Erza smiled, she was so relieved they were fine, it seemed they were having fun. She approached her three friends as her stomach rumbled again. "Hey guys, what are you eating?"

All three of them stared at her as if they never saw her before, making her uncomfortable.

"Erza!" All three of them shouted, making the others to glance over and come join them.

Erza observed Lucy relieved face, Gray worried stare and Natsu's excited aura.

"W…What's wrong?"

"Erza… We got challenged!" Levy was the one who tried explaining.

"Challenged?" The red head asked, wanting some more details.

"Isn't this great Erza? We finally get to beat those guys in a fair confrontation." Natsu beamed.

"Sabertooth challenged us." Gray blurted.

Erza's eyes narrowed. "Was this Minerva? What kind of challenge?"

Gray blinked confused, the fact the president wasn't at all surprised was bizarre. "Yes it was her but how come you aren't surprised?"

Erza sweat dropped at his statement, she couldn't have them know what happened earlier, knowing Natsu it would be even more troublesome than it already was.

"I… crossed some of Sabertooth students on the way so I already knew they were here, but of course I am surprised they challenged us instead of creating a commotion."

"Erza, the challenge it's a five challenge way." Ultear started explaining. "Gildarts is also involved so I assume they will play clean."

Erza's eyes darted to Ultear, suspicious of Minerva's actions. "So, which challenges are on?"

"We have five challenges chosen randomly, it will be held as the same as the activities we see here but as a competition between our team and theirs." The black haired girl continued. "We have 'Rock climbing', 'Swimming course', 'Headband blind tag team', 'Climbing tree' and 'Rafting'."

"The first one is Rock climb, it will be held in 2 hours."

Erza nodded as a sign she understood all of that. "So… Minerva just came to you guys and challenged you to an all-out fair random venture…? It sounds suspicious." She stated.

Jellal smirked at her assumption, finally someone agreed with his thinking.

"Who is doing which?" She suddenly asked, most of these were bad for her right now but she would support her classmates if necessary.

"That's the thing, Minerva had us chose a 5 member team which we can't replace." Gray replied. "Obviously we put you on our team, not that she wouldn't expect that. Gajeel and Jellal are also on the team, as Natsu and I of course."

Erza glanced down, her right eye twitching… she really didn't want to participate in all those for once, fate must hate her.

"The good thing is, we can chose which member will do the task." He finished.

"Yes.. That's great." Erza mumbled, now looking at all of them. "So, we still have two hours left right?"

When they all nodded she added. "Then, see ya guys in two hours, I'll just go change first." She excused herself, thinking about to eat and rest for at least one hour before the first challenge.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Lucy asked, feeling that being with Erza would be less troublesome than these two.

"It's ok… I prefer for you to keep an eye on those two." Erza replied quickly.

"O..kay." Lucy disappointed face was seen. _Guess I'm stuck with those two again uh._

"You two should also rest a little before… and don't eat too much." Erza advised the two idiots.

"But, isn't it great Erza? We must beat all those smartass!" Natsu sparkled, grabbing Erza's arms in excitement, a little too strong for her liking.

Erza winced and moved away from her friend, saying how he should be careful in touching someone while eating.

Jellal frowned at her sudden expression, and so did Ultear. They both noticed how she clenched her hand at her left arm while talking to the pink haired boy, a red tinge starting to appear at the same place she had her hand on.

"Then.. See you at 2pm here." Erza added, starting to leave

"Ok, let's do our best Erza." Gray told her. She nodded once and left the group.

Ultear was about to follow her but Jellal beat her to it. She saw, a little bit more than surprised how the blue haired boy determinately left behind their president.

She blinked and a few seconds later laughed out loud, earning confused glances from the others. The black haired girl wasn't near to imagine what could possibly had made Jellal so interested on the girl but decided to let him to it.

With a smile on her face she joined the others, ignoring Natsu asking if she was alright.

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**AN:** I got too excited writting this. I hope you are enjoying the story so far. And Thank you for reading! :)


	14. Heating up

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I want to thank you dear readers for reading and for all the reviews I got for chapter 13.

I'm happy you are enjoying the story, if there is ever something that you unlike more than the other you can feel free to also state that on your comment.

I hope you like chapter 14 and the ErzaxJellal interaction, please be aware that Jellal and Erza are still knowing each other and I need to make it slow but sure, after this camp things will go up faster but I can't say anything more xD And yes I will try writting more frequently.

Enjoy...

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**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and its characters belong to Hiro Mashima!**

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**Chapter 14: Heating up**

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"Tell me Natsu… Don't you think you will throw up once the competition start?" Lucy was rolling her eyes at her pink haired friend, they had two hours left and the boy had eaten probably all the food you could find at that place. "Even Gray has already stop."

"Itch ohay Luchy, mon wohy." Natsu replied chewing.

"Don't talk while eating." Lucy shouted disgusted.

"Don't worry Lucy, even if that clumsy dunce is unable to fight, we still have me" Gray pointed a finger at himself, provoking their friend.

Natsu glared at Gray and immediately swallowed all the food he had on his mouth. "What did you say you dipstick?"

Their foreheads were now touching, their eyes determinately sending sparks back and forth.

"I don't think this is the right time for you childish fights, you two." Ultear rebuked, getting a little bit annoyed at both.

"The icy nerd started it!" Natsu exclaimed, not moving an inch from his rival-friend.

"Because you fire brain only think about food." Gray insisted.

"Just stop you two!" Levy ordered. "We need to think about how to win this, the fact we didn't even know half of the activities they held here is only a proof we are at a big disadvantage."

"About the first challenge, I can handle it." Gajeel declared lazily.

"Well then apart from the first one, we can't really make out a strategy if we didn't try any other, right?" Ultear recalled them.

"You're right, we only have less than two hours left too, not enough time to go check on those." Lucy added.

"There's no good about dueling on it, let's just enjoy while we can." Natsu stated, laying down the nearest bench he found. "I'll just take a nap here."

"Is that how you enjoy yourself?" Gray rebuked, staring down at his stupid friend.

But it was too late as the pink head boy had already fallen asleep, making them all stare in disbelief.

"Well, he is kind of right." Gajeel whispered, already leaving them and going elsewhere, taking Levy with him.

"Then, let's just meet here at 2pm, don't go too far." Ultear also left the rest of them.

One by one went off their own way leaving Gray and Lucy with a sleeping Natsu behind.

"Well, what should we do now?" Lucy pondered out loud.

"How about we just wander around for a bit? Doesn't seem like this idiot will wake up anytime soon." Gray proposed.

"Well, seems the best thing to do." Lucy accepted and as they started to go on their own way as well, Lucy glanced back and saw Gray trying to write on Natsu's face.

"Gray!" She shouted, not believing these two childs. She halted the black haired child and dragged him away from the other.

Going around for a while didn't seem so bad, they wouldn't be far away from the destination point and they would spend those two hours quickly, as neither of them wanted to really waste any more time since they were all excited and nervous about the outcome of this challenge.

**…**

Erza had left the others behind quickly so no one would suspect about her behavior. She was tired and feeling like she was about to just accept sleeping on a rock nearby, since she didn't have time even to come back to their assigned house, but she didn't want to waste her time on sleeping either way. The red head didn't want to worry anyone, so for these two hours left, she thought about eating and meditate about a strategy, the girl knew there was no way in hell those people would play clean. She really wanted to rest as her head felt light, but she knew there was no time for that.

She winced as the pain was only now getting to her since the adrenaline left her body.

As the girl was checking out how much money she had to buy something to eat, someone stepped in front of her, not intending to move.

Erza glanced up a little upset but once she recognized the face her expression changed to confusion. After blinking a few times, she decided to talk. "W…What's wrong?"

The blue haired boy with a red tattoo under and above his right eye, slightly annoyed, grabbed her right wrist and dragged her with him.

"O..Oi, what are you doing?" Erza asked beyond confused, she really didn't have the strength to get away from his firm hold, not that she tried anyway, she just wanted to know what was happening.

"Taking you to the infirmary." Jellal simply declared.

Erza's heart skip a beat, still confused about the whole scene. The red head didn't know what to say or to do, she didn't understand why he would say something like that.

The boy couldn't possibly know about what happened, _so what was all of this?_

"Why? I'm not sick."

"You aren't. But that wound on your arm needs to get treatment." The boy implied.

Erza was taken aback with his declaration, _how could he know about it?_ Her eyes turned to her upper arm as to make sure she still had the jacket covering for it. She spotted a tinge of red now more visible with the time and bit her lower lip.

_How…_

She briefly remembered about Natsu holding her arms in his hands and she cursed him mentally. The president wondered if this boy was the only one to notice.

"I didn't notice it had opened again." The girl thought out loud.

"How did you do that?" He questioned the girl, still not looking at her.

"I… felt and… a rock brushed on my skin." She tried to lie as they reached the infirmary.

Jellal sighed but said nothing else, still pushing the girl into the tent.

Once they got in, Jellal let go of the girl's arm and glanced around, searching for a doctor.

"You can go now, even without a doctor I can treat it correctly." Erza pointed out, while taking some bandages and alcohol from the medical cupboard, she was really thankful for his worry but the girl wished he would just leave at this moment.

Jellal frowned. "Why do you have to do everything on your own?" He stated, taking the supplies from her hands while she sat down on a bed. "Just let me see it."

Erza's eyes narrowed. She was going to answer his question stating why she could do it on her own, but their conversation at the Fairy Hills living room came into her mind and she decided not to, It wasn't like she would be able to convince him. Somehow this boy always had a kind of spell, saying everything she didn't want but needed to hear.

She took off her jacket to check on the wound and realized Riku was right earlier for saying it was deep, she didn't expect to be like that, it was like half of the blade had penetrated her skin.

"So, are you telling me a rock did that?" The boy smirked, but deep inside he was still annoyed.

Erza pouted embarrassed and decided to stay quiet.

Jellal sat beside her at the bed and started to clean her wound against her protests, his fingers brushing her skin made her shiver and she couldn't understand why.

"Was this Sabertooth's doing?" He asked still focused on her wound.

"It's…" The girl sighed and gave up on lying to the boy. "Just please don't say anything to anyone." She pleaded, glancing nervously somewhere else than him. "I.. don't want to worry them."

Jellal stared at her thinking about the conversation they had before, he knew this girl hated worrying her friends and that was one of the motives she did everything on her own, it was unnerving. "I won't."

He sighed and grabbed some of the bandages to start putting them around her wound. If she told him _that,_ it was only proof he was right and it was something these people planned.

The boy pondered about how Minerva came by herself earlier. It was mostly sure she had already foreseen this. _If she knew about it and challenged them, what was the objective?_

When she challenged them she had done it mostly because the girl knew they would surely lose as they hadn't experience over most of the things they would be doing, but even so she couldn't be sure they never did that before, so she made teams out of nowhere, limiting their strategy. Choosing people before knowing the activities they would be doing was a great move, lessening their possibilities of winning to at least 60%, but even with that it was still not logical to him, letting them chose the members was a stupid move to make, they would be obviously choosing the people with greatest mobility and reflexes they had, the ones better at sports and with most resistance.

Jellal's eyes widened for a second before going back down. _Of course._

It was all clear now, _how stupid of him to not to think of this before_. Minerva knew all too well they would at least include Erza on their team. Besides her being the president of the student council, she was also one of the most dependable energetic person, being also good at sports and fighting. Minerva planned this all along, striking Erza and taking their possibilities of winning down to 40%, assuring their victory for an almost sure win. Of course he knew her reasons weren't only because of that, something about revenge to the girl for what she had done to Sting and Rogue was also a reason. And they knew she would participate even though there was no rules saying every member of the team had to do it at least once. Simple reasons for this being Erza and her stubbornness and some of the activities being a team task, making all or a number of them forced to join in.

Even though all of this was clear, he had still to know their objective behind this confrontation, _was it really just to humiliate them, or did they have another goal?_

"Are you alright?" The boy heard Erza ask him, he forgot how lost in his thoughts he was until now.

He finished to bandage the wound and looked straight at her, like he was still thinking about something.

"Thanks." She mumbled. "You always end up helping me, somehow." It was true, the girl didn't understand how it was that every time this boy seemed to notice what was happening around her.

Erza yawned and took her hand to her head, feeling light again. 'Maybe I should go eat something."

"Just rest." He ordered, pushing her down. "I'll go grab you something to eat. It's better if you sleep a little before the competition." Jellal got up from where he was sitting and started leaving.

"Wait, how can I sleep now? We only have one hour and half before it starts." She blinked confused, feeling a little embarrassed by the situation.

"It's ok." He assured her, looking over his shoulder. "I'm pretty sure Gajeel will take on the first challenge. With all the preparations and what not, it will end only over 3pm, so you have time to rest at least for two hours."

"But…"

He turned around to face her properly, staring into the stubborn girl's eyes.

"Erza." The girl flinched at the sound of her name, she was pretty sure this was the first time he called her by her name and it made her feel so many unknown emotions, she wasn't sure what to think of it. "I told you before didn't I? If you don't want for your friends to worry about you, at least take care of you and show them they don't have to."

She recalled similar words in her mind and she knew he was right, as usual.

"Sorry." The girl murmured, glancing at the ground for a second.

Jellal smirked and teased her before leaving. "If you rest it would be better for us, we can't win if you decide to faint at the middle of a challenge now, can we?" He turned around and smiled when he spotted her angry face muttering some non-sense to herself, he didn't want her to feel sorry about what happened when it wasn't really her fault.

Erza saw him leave and closed her eyes, falling asleep as she made herself comfortable on the bed. She hated the sense of feeling so vulnerable in front of someone, especially in front of the blue haired boy with the red tattoo… He made her feel weird, she didn't know what kind of emotion was this but it wasn't one the girl wanted to discover. She was afraid, the same feeling she had when she lost her mother and the person she considered as her grandfather, she was afraid of having that same feeling again, and so she denied all kinds of emotions coming from other people or herself. These emotions… Erza wanted them all away, still… _this boy…_

…

Jellal was paying a happy old man that just sold him one of his hotdogs. He had bought a small salad and a hotdog for the girl, thinking she would need to recover her strength.

The blue head was brooding about the time he was wasting with these people he didn't want to get close to, instead of searching for the girl his father sought.

He looked over his phone, reading a message Ultear sent him. _"First challenge will be taken by Gajeel, you can come in later."_

It was just as the boy thought, what bothered him was the reason Ultear told him to come later, _did she know he was with the president?_

He sighed while walking back to the medical tent, hopping Ultear wouldn't say a thing about it to the others.

As the blue haired boy walked inside, he spotted the scarlet head sleeping and laid her food on the small table beside her bed. The boy stared at Erza's calm face and decided to sit down on the chair next to her bed and text Ultear back, the challenge would be starting in one hour and he was wondering about something.

"Do you know what the next challenge is?"

He pondered about the situation, if the next challenge was a team one, it was most likely Erza would be participating.

After his phone beeped again, he clicked on the 'read message' from Ultear and read it, attentively.

"_We still don't know, the teacher said he would only tell after the first one. It's better if you and the pres get down here by the time it's done_._ I'll cover for you for the time being."_

_So she knew about it. _

Jellal could only wonder about how obvious he had been these past days.

He glanced over to see the sleeping girl and analyzed her calm and pretty face, an half smile appearing on his face before he could shake his head to expulse weird thoughts off his head.

He didn't understand why he was being so attached to this girl these past events, why he was helping her out or why he couldn't stay away from her. He couldn't decide if the girl was interested or if it was something else… but for now he decided to find out by the end of this school camp, it would be another issue aside from his mission.

_This will be a long week._

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**AN: **Erza doesn't have experience whatsoever about love in this fanfic, she was always trying to do things on her own, this is why she can't understand some of the emotions she is feeling. Jellal is also confused but more for the denial part hahaha xD

Anyway, as I said, I need them to be close to each other first, a lot will happen so look foward to it :D

See you next time.


	15. Going down

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**AN**:Hello everyone I didn't forget this story don't worry, I just started by summer job (even tho it started before the real summer lol) and I've been busy getting used to it. BUT I swear I wont drop this so don't worry, also I don't want to update this every month of course, I'll do my best. I'll try to upload three more chapters this week-end :)

I'm really happy with all the reviews and knowing someone is reading my story, I hope you will enjoy it even more. I leave you with a little chapter today but I'll be back with 3 more soon :D

**Disclaimer: FT characters mencioned below belong to Hiro sensei!**

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**Chapter 15: Going down**

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"Well, I could've done much better." Natsu bragged, after the first match.

Gajeel had won for a little second above his opponent, Rogue, whom was now even angrier than before. Sting was trying to calm him down but scolding him at the same time, if that was even possible.

"I won, didn't I?" Gajeel interjected, not liking the way Natsu was bragging about something he didn't even try to do.

"But, where is Erza? She didn't show herself for the first match, that's weird." Lucy pointed out, knowing her best friend wouldn't ever do something like that.

"Ah, I told her Gajeel would be doing the first one and since she needed to do something important she said she would be coming in after the first match." Ultear explained, trying to find an acceptable excuse, after all, being busy and having something important to do was a normal thing for the president.

"What about your friend, where is he?" Natsu asked, frowning.

"He… he always do that, don't worry, he will be here soon." Ultear chuckled, she could only smile by the thought of two of her friends, doing whatever they were doing. But hoped they didn't forget to come before it was too late, they would be leaving in 15 minutes to the river, where they would be starting the rafting competition.

Ultear noticed Minerva just coming in, but that didn't surprise her much, that menacing girl only appeared when she needed to.

"So, you lost Rogue." The dark girl said with a disapproving look.

Rogue glanced down at his feet, ashamed for the loss, but didn't comment on anything.

"Well, it's okay, we only need three wins." Sting said, determinated.

Lucy smirked, thinking they were too optimistic. She was about to talk to Natsu about it when she spotted a similar red hair. She immediately beamed in her friend's direction and hugged her without hesitation, ignoring completely her blue haired company boy.

"L…Lucy…" Erza tried to leave her friend's arms as to be careful with her now fully treated wound. Jellal gave her Ultear's jacket earlier since her own was tinged with blood, which she was grateful to.

"There you are Erza." Natsu shouted happily. "We won the first match!"

"Hey, _I_ won the first match!" Corrected Gajeel.

"Isn't it the same? We are a team." Natsu muttered.

"We will have to move to the next one." Gray interfered when Natsu and Gajeel started their own fight. "But why were you two together?" He added, confused with both appearing at the same time, he never saw them together before, he thought they didn't even know each other.

"W…We weren't together, we just came in together." Erza mumbled, nervously. Is not that she was embarrassed that they were together, but she didn't understand their sudden relationship either, were they becoming friends, maybe?

Jellal smirked and decided to not say anything else, after all, he himself didn't exactly know why he helped her before or why he was with her this right moment.

Gray narrowed his eyes but ignored his deep feeling telling him there was something wrong with these two and decided to change the subject. "Well, I bet you are ready to the next competition... where is Gildarts anyway?"

"He went to take a drink, he will be back soon." Ultear explained, coming closer to the group.

She glanced at Erza first, smiling softly, she was happy now that she didn't see any blood on her, but she also kind of wanted to know what happened. Ultear then glanced to the right where Jellal was and when she felt his eyes turning to hers, she winked knowingly. The girl loved to provoke him, but deep inside she was really curious to this unknown interest of his to the red head.

Jellal narrowed his eyes, feeling that his black haired friend was mocking him somehow, but decided to ignore it, he was getting used to it by now.

Erza searched around for a certain person and locked eyes with Sting and Rogue, both staring at her with those proud eyes. They were both pleased to see the red head's angry stare. Minerva joined both her colleagues and stared at the Fairy Tail president, smirking.

Erza didn't dare to take off her eyes from those three, as it would seem she lost the staring contest occurring only for them. She locked her eyes with the other girl, frowning. The red head was really angry towards those cowards, how dare they ambush her like that.

Not only that, but before she and her blue haired companion came into the scene, Erza messaged Ultear to know about how the match was going and her friend told her.

"_It's going well, like you asked, we verified everything before the match and we found some of the material was intentionally damaged, just as you predicted. But don't worry we changed everything without anyone noticing it."_

That made the red head even more pissed at the Sabertooth team, not only did they attack her but they were targeting her friends as well.

The tension was rising between the three, while Natsu kept arguing with Gray and Gajeel about who should go next. Jellal was talking to Ultear or more like trying to ignore her teasing… and Lucy was trying to stop Natsu and the others.

Gildarts approached the big group confused but shrugged and decided to break the ice.

"What are you doing? Let's keep moving."

They all suddenly stopped and faced their teacher, Erza breaking eye contact with the Sabertooth students.

"I see Miss Scarlet is also here, let's go then." Gildarts added as soon as he got a glimpse of Red.

The teacher pointed out at two cars consisting of 6 places each, both color black.

"6 seat cars, you are five each and two of us will be driving, me and another teacher." Gildarts explained, then when he saw Lucy desperate stare he added. "Lucy, you can go with Fairy Tail's team, I think we can manage to enter one more person."

Lucy jumped happily and dragged an excited Natsu and Gray with her to the first car.

"Sabertooth students can get in the other one, there is already someone inside who will drive you all to the place." Gildarts said, looking at the other school students.

Minerva raised her chin and walked away to the other car where Rufus and Orga were already waiting for them, Sting and Rogue tailing behind the girl.

"Well, have fun!" Ultear shouted to Fairy Tail's team, she wouldn't go in the same car. She glanced at Jellal still beside her and whispered. "Take care of the president." The girl winked and went off her way to the river, she would take another car with the rest of Fairy tail's students who were curious enough, but they would be late.

Jellal brushed off his thoughts about that last comment and made his away to the car where everyone was already in. Erza was in the front seat beside Gildarts, the driver. Gajeel was just behind with a now blue haired boy. Natsu, Lucy and Gray were at the back seats trying to get space between them but failing miserably.

"Lucy how come you have such a big ass." Natsu muttered.

"I…I have a normal… Why do you have to be such an idiot Natsu?" Lucy shouted angry, trying to punch Natsu but being difficult to do so made her even angrier.

"Stop moving around your fire head." Gray spat, starting yet another fight.

Jellal sighed and wondered how their teachers could keep up with such a weird class.

Erza held the urge to punch all of them and concentrated in the next match, the rafting. She was deciding if participating or not, which was a difficult decision. If the girl participated she could end up making her team lose and not only that, her wound could open again which would technically be bad for her and also the others would see it and guess that something happened. But, if she didn't participate they would assume something was also wrong, because the red head never declined a challenge.

As many thoughts crossed her mind, she didn't even realized when they arrived at the top of one of the small mountains where the rafting would begin. The river in front of them was not that large and plenty of rocks could be seen as you followed the rough water, if they weren't careful with the other enemy team, which obviously would try to cheat, they could not only lose but also get hurt, even if this was only a class 3 rafting, which meant that they wouldn't really be in danger by the course, as it was adapted to basic little experience in rafting, but what worried her was not the way down the white water or the rocks, it was the coward enemy team and their methods.

As soon as everyone was out of the car, Gildarts asked. "So, did you decide the teams already?"

Each member was looking at each other unsure, waiting for Erza or someone to say something, as Erza was about to answer, Gildarts, tensing something was wrong, decided to propose something he thought about, that should work to avoid insecurities. "How about doing this more interesting?"

Minerva frowned, not liking where this was going.

"It would be a shame if we chose the experienced people to just go in and win the game." The teacher said, half looking at the Sabertooth team, he knew they tried cheating at the Rock climbing, so if they prepared something in advance with their team, this would at least break that plan.

"And… What are you thinking about?" Erza asked confused.

"Random teams." Gildarts announced happily. "We just have to do as we did to choose the different matches."

Erza wasn't sure what the teacher had in mind, but at least with this, she had a chance to really not participate in it without any suspicions, it was perfect.

"I agree with that." Jellal said, thinking the same as Erza.

"Oi, wait, but I do want to participate, what if I don't get chosen?" Natsu interjected, feeling betrayed.

"Shut up Natsu. Weren't you fighting over it before? Like this no one can say anything about it." Lucy pointed out.

Minerva was angry with their teacher's perspicacity but decided to agree with them. "Alright."

She didn't want to show inferiority or making them suspect she actually planned to enter the game with Sting and Rogue, they surely had something planned. But the girl wasn't about to make them know that, she was sure they could win against those brats either way.

Gildarts nodded to both groups and with a small bag in both hands he told them he would pick three papers inside to each team.

After he got six small papers, three at his right and three at his left, he opened them one by one and said out loud the results.

"For Sabertooth's team, the chosen ones will be: "Sting… Rufus... And Orga."

"Tch." Minerva hissed, not happy.

"For the Fairy Tail's team…" Everyone was staring at their teacher waiting for it. Erza was tensed, she hoped her name was not in those three small menacing papers. "Jellal…"

Jellal unfolded his arms, he wasn't expecting to participate in this one but he was happy he was the one getting chosen instead of a scarlet haired girl.

Natsu indignated, said. "What, why him? What about m…"

"Natsu…" Gildarts announced, ignoring him.

"Yes, I knew it, the papers chose me cuz they know I am the best." Natsu bragged happily.

Lucy rolled her eyes at her friend's stupid change of behavior in less than one second.

"And.. Erza." Gildarts said, the last name making some of the people there tensing up.

Erza looked down, not liking her luck these past days. But she couldn't really show that she didn't want to participate. In fact, she did want to participate, if it wasn't for her wound, but now she was worried she would slow down the team.

"Erza, we will win for sure." Natsu thumps up her, proud of their team.

The red head smiled confidently, she knew with Natsu at least on her team they wouldn't lack energy, they could do this!

Jellal looked at both unsure of the outcome, this was a sport that made them paddle and it would be hard to the red head.

They went next to the already two inflatable rafts, ready to be used. The security team made their way to the student group, explaining them the rules while making them wear lifejackets.

"It's ok, don't make too much effort with your arm, I will cover for you." Jellal whispered, while everyone was busy preparing.

Erza jumped slightly at this but decided to say nothing about it, she didn't really want for anyone to help her or be a burden to anyone, but she couldn't really refuse his help right now.

"Now, please be careful and we will be waiting for you all down at the end of the course." Gildarts said.

"Good luck you three!" Lucy shouted, she was standing with Gray and Gajeel next to the car.

Gray was looking everywhere but at Natsu, he expected the pink haired boy would brag about being chosen and not him, if he did as much as glance briefly at his friend.

The three members of Fairy High got on their boat at the same time the other team did.

Minerva smirked evilly, even though she wasn't participating, the girl was surely full of herself.

Sting and Rufus smirked back, thinking how they would win no matter what with what they would do to them.

"Ready…. Start!" One of the responsible shouted, starting the match as two others pushed both inflatable boats down the small mountain. "Good luck!"

"Let's goooo!" Natsu shouted.

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**AN:** Yes it is finally starting, the rafting.

I skipped Gajeel's match because this is a JERZA centered fanfiction so I thought about not wasting too much time with simple stuff like that, I'm really sorry.


	16. Complications

Hello, been a long time. I bought a new pc and tbh this is so fast I motivate myself.

I hope you enjoy new chapter, I'm going to try to write more frequently.

**Disclaimer: FT characters mentioned below belong to Hiro sensei!**

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**Chapter 1****6 : Complications**

The start of the race was fast as both teams went down the river, padding and evading some of the rocks on the way. Natsu kept crying and padding like crazy as Jellal pointed out some orders while helping Natsu. Erza was in the middle of both, padding only when necessary, though, with Natsu doing more than he should, it was an easy task which she appreciated at the moment.

Minerva's team was slightly in front of them, trying their best to not lose speed. Sting and Orga were the ones padding while Rufus kept ordering them arround and keeping an eye on Fairy Tail's team, making sure they blocked their path.

"Yo, they getting on my nerves, let's just pass through them!" Cried Natsu, frustrated.

"Natsu, don't be impatient, we need the perfect timing to get through. Let's just wait for it. We still have time." Reassured Erza.

"I know there is a rough curve to the right soon, it's separated by a rock at the middle, knowing them, they will surely take the right path which is faster, we need to pressure them to take the left one while we get the right one, like that we could take the lead." Jellal proposed. He knew this course because he verified the course while the others were doing the first match, while Erza was at the infirmary.

Erza could see Natsu's head slighted to the left in confusion but she got what the blue haired boy meant, they were going to turn right soon in the river, if they could take that opportunity, it will be hard for the other team to get the lead later on.

"Since they are focusing on us all the time, why not lure them? We must pretend we will head left." Erza planned.

Jellal smirked, thinking the same as Erza. "Natsu, at my signal, let's head left, then when I say 'Right' we must go right as fast as we can, if we can't do it in time..." Jellal said.

"What about it?" Natsu asked, anxious.

"Nothing, we will just hit the rock probably." Jellal answered, still smirking.

Instead of being afraid, Natsu's adrenaline raised as he padded even faster, preparing for the signal.

"I will help you pad when the moment comes, our chances are better if the three of us do it." Erza said, quietly so only Jellal could hear.

The tattooed boy wanted to arge, but he knew she was right, it was better for them to not take a bigger risk.

"I agree, just..." He suddenly shut his month, regretting what he was going to say. 'Be careful', instead he just added "Let's finish this fast."

Erza nodded and concentrated on the task, they were still a bit far away from the end but they were doing fine, they could do this.

….

As the curve Jellal mentioned appeared, they were already ready to take their plan to the best.

"Natsu, let's do this." Jellal cried.

Natsu and Jellal padded to the left, taking the left side of the river. The team in front of them automatically went to the left as well, to try and block their path if they tried to take the lead.

"You guys are so predictable, always doing the same." Natsu cried, taking their attention to them.

"Good Natsu, just make them notice you more." Jellal approved.

"Well, that wasn't really my intention." Said Natsu while taking position to turn right at any moment.

"Oi, you flower head, just say something when you really are in front of us. Can't hear you all in the back." Laughed Sting, while looking at the team behind them.

"Sting, why did you turn left, you should stay right, there is a curve in front of us." Cried Rufus, worried, they were too close now.

The three of them cried as Sting realized what was in front of him. They slightly evaded the big rock standing at the middle and turned right just in time to continue the course. Pink was seen in front of Sting and he cursed as he realized it was Natsu's head, Fairy Tail's boat was in front of them, they took the lead.

"Tchh, this was a trap." Rufus cursed.

"Oi, that isn't fair you Fairies." Cried Sting, furious.

"What was that? I can't hear you in the back." Rebounded Natsu, laughing.

Sting bit his lips, padding extremely faster, almost like obsessed with getting revenge. "Orga, let's destroy them."

Orga smirked, picking up something on his pockets.

Natsu started to go faster as well. "Erza, just let me know if they try to get through."

Erza nodded looking back at their enemies, her arm was still ok even when she helped earlier at the curve.

Her eyes were suddenly wide open as she saw Orga throwing something at Natsu's head.

"Look out." She shouted, moving him just in time.

The pebble Orga threw him hit Erza's hand instead, not doing much as a slight pain.

"Erza, are you okay?" Natsu asked, worried. He picked the small rock and threw it to the river.

Jellal briefly looked back not wanting to take his eyes off the river in front of him. Another pebble was sent at them flying, this time they evaded it. But Sting took the opportunity to pad faster and get near their boat, barely touching it.

"Natsu, I can paddle, just protect the boat." Jellal frowned, wanting to just kill those Sabertooth members, he was in this school not for too long but he already had a lot of people in his dark list, how daring.

"I'm on it, Erza take the lead on paddling with Jellal, don't worry with those small fries." Natsu assured, taking his wood paddle in his hands to rebound every pebble they threw. "Take that back, it belongs to you." He said, laughing enthusiastically.

Natsu was really enjoying this, thought Erza. She started paddling in his place, slowly. She didn't have much of a choice to do so. Jellal glanced back for a second before returning his sight to the river in front of them. Erza couldn't say what expression he held at that moment, she just hoped she wasn't being much of a burden to them.

Sting, Orga and Rufus were frustrated with Natsu's counter attack, he was not only defending their boat but also throwing them back. It was like a tossing pebble war while both teams speed to the finish line.

Jellal took a look at Erza, sensing she was overdoing it as usual, not getting mistaken when he spotted some of her blood appearing again in her arm.

"You should stop!" He said, alarming.

Erza frowned. "I have to help my team, it's even worse for me to feel useless than to being injured." She greeted her teeth, while paddling faster. Jellal felt he lost to her again and knew he couldn't change her mind anyway, so he just gave up and did the same.

Sting was getting near and managed to get an impact on their boat from behind, making them stumble for a second.

"Natsu watch your feet" Jellal warned, since he knew the pink haired boy was standing in the back.

Natsu almost fell out of balance but managed to get in his two feet again, though, before he could do it, a pebble passed through him to Erza's, hitting her injured arm.

Erza cursed, letting her paddle go and grab her arm with her own free one.

"Erza!" Natsu shouted, feeling guilty he didn't protected her after telling her not to worry.

"It's ok, I'm okay." She tried to tell him but blood could be seen spreading even more.

Natsu frowned confused but didn't gave much of a thought when he heard Sting's laugh as their boat was getting beside their own.

The last meters could be counted. Orga stopped casting them the small objects as trees were cleared from the view. They chose this opportunity to get the lead, while Erza couldn't paddle. People could be seen now that they were close to the end.

Sting and his team slowly took the lead while Natsu was starting to paddle again, at the same time looking out for Erza and Jellal was trying his best to concentrate and not looking back. He knew he had to do his best in order for Erza not being seen as defeated.

Sting and Orga were turning the boat to the right, making Jellal and his team slow down as to not to collide with the enemy. The blue haired boy cursed, but didn't have a choice but to admit defeat as the team in front crossed the final line before them.

They approached the land now slowing down as they heard Sabertooth's members cries of victory.

Natsu didn't seem to bother. He helped Erza getting on off the boat and apologized while security workers took off their equipment. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." He could see Gray and Lucy at the back, with a worried face, waiting for them to be free of all the equipment so they could approach their friends.

Erza bit her lip, knowing it wasn't his fault they lose, but hers.

"Natsu.. This wound…"

But before she could tell him the truth, Gray and Lucy were already at their side.

Jellal was hiding her arm as best as he could, staying beside Erza.

"Erzaaa." Lucy said with a worried expression. "It's… it's okay, you all did what you could."

"Yeah, we still have other opportunities anyway." Added Gray, not really worrying too much over the defeat, but more worried about how could have they lose with Erza and Natsu on their team.

The scarlet haired girl looked down. "I'm sorry guys, they got us at the end."

Natsu frowned and asked himself why wasn't either of them talking about how the others cheated, but decided to trust Erza, he knew she had a good reason, probably.

"It's okay, we are tied. Let's win the next one." Gray said, knowing Sabertooth must've done something.

Ultear sensing something was wrong came to the rescue, taking Erza and Jellal with her.

"Excuse me guys, the car is waiting, let's all meet at the center, shall we?"

Gray and Lucy called over their friends, confused but decided to get in the other car.

Ultear got inside at the front seat, while Erza and Jellal were going in the back seats.

"Thanks." Jellal said, getting in the car just after Erza.

But before Jellal could close the door, Natsu got inside and close it himself, pushing Jellal to the middle, with a surprised face.

Feeling the blue haired boy that close made Erza confused. She glanced to the side to see Natsu sitting with them, with a frown on his face, his arms crossed, like waiting for an explanation.

"So, why didn't you guys mention them cheating?" Natsu asked, a little angry but not with them. With their enemy.

"Natsu..." Erza started, only to be interrupted by Jellal.

"Obviously it was because she didn't want to worry the others."

Natsu stared at him. "She is bleeding... And they are her friends." He implied.

"That is exactly why..."

But this time Jellal was the one who got cut.

"My lesion wasn't made because of the rocks." Erza blurted.

"Erza..." Jellal looked worried, he didn't know if it was the best, telling the pink haired boy the truth. Assuming he would just tell everyone and make things worse.

"It's ok. I can't lie to him. He doesn't deserve that." Erza explained, knowing Natsu still thought it was his fault. She bit her lip, thinking of how to start.

"Earlier today..." She finally told him. "Minerva asked Sting, Rogue and Orga to follow me..."

Natsu, confused, nodded slightly to motivate Erza to continue.

"When I was all alone, they took the opportunity to attack me. They didn't really hurt me aside from this." She quickly added, to not make Natsu too worried. "They just wanted to assure they were going to win this competition."

Her pink haired friend meditated for a while before getting into the realisation. "So… was this a trap?"

"Yes, Minerva already knew you guys were going to include Erza into the team, so she planned all this before asking us." Jellal finished.

Natsu frowned again, getting angry. "They will pay for this."

"Natsu, please don't play their game." Erza plead. "We will win the 'tournament' and finish this war once and for all."

Erza held a dark expression that made Natsu and Jellal a little worried, her words didn't match her mind.

The red head had this revenge plan in her head, they wouldn't forget. But first, they had to finish this game.

She wouldn't let them laugh at their backs, by the next day, she would make sure her arm wouldn't stand in her way anymore.

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**SN: **Ok guys we reached the end of ch16, next chapter we will have the next stage. Who will prevail at the end?


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